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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



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JOHN T.^ MORSE, JR. 



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BOSTON 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 

STJe Eiijersilie prcgg, CambriUffe 

1892 



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Copyright, 1882, 
By JOHN T. MORSE, Jit 

AU rights reserved. 






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2%e Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A 
Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PASS 

Youth and Diplomacy 1 

CHAPTER n. 
Secretary of State and President , . . 102 

CHAPTER IIL 
In the House op Representatives .... 226 



tLS'S'S. 



JOHN QUIFOY ADAMS. 



CHAPTER I. 

YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY. 

On July 11, 1767, in the North Parish of 
Braintree, since set off as the town of Quincy, 
in Massachusetts, was born John Quincy Adams. 
Two streams of as good blood as flowed in the 
colony mingled in the veins of the infant. If 
heredity counts for anything he began life with 
an excellent chance of becoming famous — non 
sine dis animosus infans. He was called after 
his great-grandfather on the mother's side, 
John Quincy, a man of local note who had 
borne in his day a distinguished part in pro- 
vincial affairs. Such a naming was a simple 
and natural occurrence enough, but Mr. Adams 
afterward moralized upon it in his character- 
istic way : — 

" The incident which gave rise to this circumstance 
is not without its moral to my heart. He was dying 
when I was baptized ; and his daughter, my grand- 
mother, present at my birth, requested that I might 
receive his name. The fact, recorded by my father 

1 



2 JORN QUINCY ADAMS. 

at the time, has connected with that portion of my 
name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. 
It was filial tenderness that gave the name. It was 
the name of one passing from earth to immortality. 
These have been among the strongest links of my 
attachment to the name of Quincy, and have been to 
me through life a perpetual admonition to do nothmg 
unworthy of it." 

Fate, which had made such good preparation 
for him before his birth, was not less kind in 
arranging the circumstances of his early train- 
ing and development. His father was deeply 
engaged in the patriot cause, and the first 
matters borne in upon his opening intelligence 
concerned the public discontent and resistance 
to tyranny. He was but seven years old when 
he clambered with his mother to the top of one 
of the high hills in the neighborhood of his 
home to listen to the sounds of conflict upon 
Bunker's Hill, and to watch the flaming ruin 
of Charlestown. Profound was the impression 
made upon him by the spectacle, and it was 
intensified by many an hour spent afterward 
ipon the same spot during the siege and bom- 
bardment of Boston. Then John Adams went 
as a delegate to the Continental Congress at 
Philadelphia, and his wife and children were 
left for twelve months, as John Quincy Adama 
says, — it is to be hoped with a little exaggerai 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 3 

fcion of the barbarity of British troops toward 
women and babes, — " liable every hour of the 
day and of the night to be butchered in cold 
blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hos- 
tages, by any foraging or marauding detach- 
ment." Later, when the British had evacu- 
ated Boston, the boy, barely nine years old, 
became " post-rider " between the city and the 
farm, a distance of eleven miles each way, in 
order to bring all the latest news to his mother. 
Not much regular schooling was to be got 
amid such surroundings of times and events, 
but the lad had a natural aptitude or affinity for 
knowledge which stood him in better stead than 
could any dame of a village school. The follow- 
ing letter to his father is worth preserving : — 

Braintree, June the 2d, 1777. 
Dear Sir, — I love to receive letters very well, 
much better than I love to write them. I make but 
a poor figure at composition, my head is much too 
fickle, my thoughts are running after birds* eggs, play 
and trifles till I get vexed with myself. I have but 
\ust entered the 3d volume of Smollett, tho' I had 
designed to have got it half through by this time. I 
have determined this week to be more diligent, as 
Mr. Thaxter will be absent at 3ourt and I Cannot 
pursue my other Studies. T have Set myself a Stent 
and determine to read the 3d volume Half out. If 
{ can but keep my resolution I will write again at the 



i JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

end of the week and give a better account of myself. 
I wish, Sir, you would give me some instructions 
with regard to my time, and advise me how to pro- 
portion my Studies and my Play, in writing, and I 
will keep them by me and endeavor to follow them. 
I am, dear Sir, with a present determination of grow- 
ing better. Yours. 

P. S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me 
with a Blank book, I will transcribe the most re- 
markable occurrences I mett with in my reading, 
which will serve to fix them upon my mind. 

Not long after the writing of this model 
epistle, the simple village life was interrupted 
by an unexpected change. John Adams was 
sent on a diplomatic journey to Paris, and on 
February 13, 1778, embarked in the frigate 
Boston. John Quincy Adams, then eleven 
years old, accompanied his father and thus made 
bis first acquaintance with the foreign lands 
where so many of his coming years were to be 
passed. This initial visit, however, was brief ; 
and he was hardly well established at school 
when events caused his father to start for home. 
Unfortunately this return trip was a needless 
loss of time, since within three months of their 
Betting foot upon American shores the two 
travellers were again on their stormy way back 
across the Atlantic in a leaky ship, which had tc 
land them at the nearest port in Spain. On# 



JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 5 

more quotation must be given from a letter writ 
ken just after the first arrival in France : — 

Passt, September the 27th, 1778 
Honored Mamma, — My Pappa enjoins it u] on 
me to keep a Journal, or a L^ary of the Events that 
happen to me, and of objects that I see, and of 
Characters that I converse with from day to day ; and 
altho' I am Convinced of the utility, importance and 
necessity of this Exercise, yet I have not patience 
and perseverance enough to do it so Constantly as I 
ought. My Pappa, who takes a great deal of pains 
to put me in the right way, has also advised me to 
Preserve Copies of all my letters, and has given me 
a Convenient Blank Book for this end ; and altho' I 
shall have the mortification a few years hence to read 
a great deal of my Childish nonsense, yet I shall 
have the Pleasure and advantage of Remarking the 
several steps by which I shall have advanced in taste, 
judgment and knowledge. A Journal Book and a let- 
ter Book of a Lad of Eleven yeax-s old Can not be 
expected to Contain much of Science, Literature, arts, 
wisdom, or wit, yet it may serve to perpetuate many 
observations that I may make, and may hereafter 
help me to recollect both persons and things that 
would other ways escape my memory. 

He continues with resolutions '* to be more 
thoughtful and industrious for the future," and 
reflects with pleasure upon the prospect that 
his scheme '' will be a sure means of improve- 
ment to myself, and enable me to be more 



6 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

entertaining to you." What gratification must 
this letter from one who was quite justified ir 
signing himself her "dutiful and affectionate 
son " have brought to the Puritan bosom of the 
good mother at home ! If the plan for the diary- 
was not pursued during the first short flitting 
abroad, it can hardly be laid at the door of the 
" lad of eleven years " as a serious fault. He 
did in fact begin it when setting out on the 
aforementioned second trip to Europe, calling it 

A Journal by J. Q. A., 
From America to Spain. 
Vol. I. 
Begun Friday, 12 of November, 1779. 

The spark of life in the great undertaking 
flickered in a somewhat feeble and irregular 
way for many years thereafter, but apparently 
gained strength by degrees until in 1795, as 
Mr. C. F. Adams tells us, " what may be 
denominated the diary proper begins," a very- 
vigorous work in more senses than one. Con- 
tinued with astonishing persistency and faith- 
fulness until within a few days of the writer's 
ileath, the latest entry is of the 4th of January, 
1848. Mr. Adams achieved many successes 
during his life as the result of conscious effort, 
lut the greatest success of all he achieved al- 
iC^ether unconsciously. He left a portrait ol 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 7 

himself more full, correct, vivid, and picturesque 
than has ever been bequeathed to posterity by 
Rny other personage of the past ages. Any 
mistakes which may be made in estimating his 
mental or moral attributes must be charored to 
the dullness or prejudice of the judge, who 
could certainly not ask for better or more 
abundant evidence. Few of us know our most 
intimate friends better than any of us may 
know Mr. Adams, if we will but take the 
trouble. Even the brief extracts already given 
from his correspondence show us the boy ; it 
only concerns us to get them into the proper 
\\(Ait for seeinsj them accuratelv. If a lad of 
seven, nine, or eleven years of age should write 
Buch solemn little effusions amid the surround- 
ings and influences of the present day, he would 
probably be set down justly enough as either 
an offensive young prig or a prematurely de- 
veloped hypocrite. But the precocious Adams 
had only a little of the prig and nothing of 
the hypocrite in his nature. Being the out- 
come of many generations of simple, devout, 
intelligent Puritan ancestors, living in a com- 
munitv which loved virtue and souMit knowl- 
edge, all inherited and all present influences 
combined to make him, as it may be put in a 
iingle word, sensible. He had inevitably a 
nental boyhood and youth, but morally he \?a8 



8 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

never either a child or a lad; all his leading 
traits of character were as strongly marked 
when he was seven as when he was seventy, 
and at an age when most young people simply 
win love or cause annoyance, he was preferring 
wisdom to mischief, and actually in his earliest 
years was attracting a certain respect. 

These few but bold and striking touches 
which paint the boy are changed for an infin- 
itely more elaborate and complex presentation 
from the time when the Diary begins. Even 
as abridged in the printing, this immense work 
ranks among the half-dozen longest diaries to 
be found in any library, and it is unquestion- 
ably by far the most valuable. Henceforth we 
are to travel along its broad route to the end ; 
we shall see in it both the great and the small 
among public men halting onward in a way 
very ditferent from that in which they march 
along the stately pages of the historian, and we 
shall find many side-lights, by no means color- 
less, thrown upon the persons and events of the 
procession. The persistence, fulness, and faith- 
fulness with which it was kept throughout so 
busy a life, are marvellous, but are also highly 
characteristic of the most persevering and in 
diistrious of men. That it has been preserved 
is cause not only f Dr thankfulness but for some 
lurprise also. For if its contents bad bee» 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 9 

fimown, it is certain that all tlie public men of 
nearly two generations who figure in it would 
have combined into one vast and irresistible 
conspiracy to obtain and destroy it. There 
was always a superfluity of gall in the diarist's 
ink. Sooner or later every man of any note in 
the United States was mentioned in his pages, 
and there is scarcely one of them, who, if he 
could have read what was said of him, would not 
have preferred the ignominy of omission. Aa 
one turns the leaves he feels as though he were 
walking through a graveyard of slaughtered 
reputations wherein not many headstones show 
a few words of measured commendation. It is 
only the greatness and goodness of Mr. Adams 
himself which relieve the univei'sal atmosphere 
of sadness far more depressing than the mel- 
ancholy which pervades the novels of George 
Eliot. The reader who wishes to retain any 
comfortable degree of belief in his fellow-men 
will turn to the wall all the portraits in the 
gallery except only the inimitable one of the 
writer himselQ- For it would be altogether too 
discouraging to think that so wide an experi- 
ence of men as Mr. Adams enjoyed through his 
long varied and active life, must lead to such an 
unpleasant array of human faces as those which 
are scattered along these twelve big octavos. 
Fortunately at present we have to do with only 



10 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

one of these likenesses, and tliat one we are able 
to admire while knowing also that it is beyond 
question accurate. One after another every 
trait of Mr. Adams comes out; we shall see 
that he was a man of a very high and noble 
character veined with some very notable and 
disagreeable blemishes ; his aspirations wer< 
honorable, even the lowest of them being more 
than simply respectable ; he had an avowed 
ambition but it was of that pure kind which 
led him to render true and distinguished serv 
ices to his countrymen ; he was not only a 
zealous patriot but a profound believer in the 
sound and practicable tenets of the liberal 
political creed of the United States; he had 
one of the most honest and independent natures 
that was ever given to man ; personal integrity 
of course goes without saying, but he had the 
rarer gift of an elevated and rigid political hon- 
esty such as has been unfrequently seen in any 
age or any nation ; in times of severe trial this 
quality was even cruelly tested, but we shall 
never see it fail ; he was as courageous as if he 
had been a fanatic ; indeed, for a long part of 
his life to maintain a single-handed fight m 
support of a despised or unpopular opinion 
seemed his natural function and almost exclu- 
sive calling; he was thoroughly conscientious 
fcnd never knowingly did wrong, nor evea 



jonN uuJNcr adams. 11 

Bouglit to persuade himself that wi-ong was 
right ; well read in literature and of wide and 
v^aried information in nearly all matters of 
knowledge, he was more especially remarkable 
for his acquirements in the domain of politics, 
where indeed they were vast and ever growing; 
he had a clear and generally a cool head, and 
was nearly always able to do full justice to 
himself and to his cause ; he had an indom- 
itable will, unconquerable persistence, and in- 
6nite laboriousness. Such were the qualities 
which made him a great statesman ; but un- 
fortunately we must behold a hardly less strik- 
ing reverse to the picture, in the faults and 
shortcomings which made him so unpopular in 
his lifetime that posterity is only just beginning 
to forget the prejudices of his contemporaries 
and to render concerning him the judgment 
which he deserves. Never did a man of pure 

fe and just })ur poses have fewer friends or 
hiore enemies than John Quincy Adams. His 
nature, said to have been very affectionate in 
his family relations, was in its aspect outside of 
that small circle singularly cold and repellent. 
If he could ever have gathered even a small 
personal following his character and abilities 
ivould have insured him a bHlliant and pro- 

onged success ; but, for a man of his calibre 
ind influence, we shall see him as one of the 



12 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

most lonely and desolate of the great men ol 
history ; histinct led the public men of his 
time to range themselves against him rather 
than with him, and we shall find them fighting 
beside him only when irresistibly compelled to 
do so by policy or strong convictions. As he 
had little sympathy with those with whom he 
was brought in contact, so he was very unchar- 
itable in his judgment of them ; and thus hav- 
ing really a low opinion of so many of them 
he could indulge his vindictive rancor without 
stint ; his invective, always powerful, will some- 
times startle us by its venom, and we shall be 
pained to see him apt to make enemies for a 
good cause by making them for himself. 

This has been, perhaps, too long a lingering 
upon the threshold. But Mr. Adams's career 
in public life stretched over so long a period 
that to write a full historical memoir of him 
within the limited space of this volume is im- 
possible. All that can be attempted is to pre- 
sent a sketch of the man with a few of his more 
X)rominent surroundings against a very meagre 
and insufficient background of the history of 
the times. So it may be permissible to begin 
with a general outline of his figure, to be filled 
in, shaded, and colored as we proceed. At best 
our task is much more difficult of satisfactory 
achievement than an historical biography a 
the "ustomnry elaborate order. 



/ 
y 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. !» 

During his second visit to Europe, our mature 
J^oungster — if the word may be used of Mr. 
Adams even in his earhest years — began to 
Bee a good deal of the world and to mingle in 
very distinguished society. For a brief period 
he got a little schooling, first at Paris, next at 
Amsterdam, and then at Leyden; altogether 
the amount was insignificant, since he was 
not quite fourteen years old when he actually 
found himself engaged in a diplomatic career. 
Francis Dana, afterward Chief Justice of Mas- 
jachusetts, was then accredited as an envoy to 
Russia from the United States, and he took Mr. 
Adams with him as his private secretary. Not 
much came of the mission, but it was a valuable 
experience for a lad of his years. Upon his re- 
turn he spent six months in travel and then he 
rejoined his father in Paris, where that gentle- 
man was engaged witli FrankHn and Jefferson 
in negotiating the final treaty of peace between 
the revolted colonies and the mother country. 
The boy " was at once enlisted in the service as 
an additional secretary, and gave his help to 
the preparation of the papers necessary to the 
completion of that instrument which dispersed 
all possible doubt of the Independence of his 
Country." 

On April 26, 1785, arrived the packet ship 
Le Courier de L' Orient, bringing a letter from 



14 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

Mr. Gerry containing news of the appointment 
of John Adams as Minister to St. James's. This 
unforeseen occarrence made it necessary for the 
younger Adams to determine his own career, 
which apparently he was left to do for himself. 
He was indeed a singular young man, not un- 
worthy of such confidence ! The glimpses which 
we get of him during this stay abroad, show hira 
as the associate upon terms of equality with 
grown men of marked ability and exercising 
important functions. He preferred diplomacy 
to dissipation, statesmen to mistresses, and in 
the midst of all the temptations of the gayest 
capital in the world, the chariness with which 
he sprinkled his wild oats amid the alluring 
gardens chiefly devoted to the culture of those 
cereals, might well have brought a blush to the 
cheeks of some among his elders, at least if the 
tongue of slander wags not with gross untruth 
concerning the colleagues of John Adams. But 
he was not in Europe to amuse himself, though 
at an age when amusement is natural and a 
tinge of sinfulness is so often pardoned ; he was 
there with the definite and persistent purpose 
of steady improvement and acquisition. At his 
age most young men play the cards which a 
kind fortune puts into their hands, with the 
reckless intent only of immediate gain, bu/ 
from the earliest moment when he began the 



JOHN QUJNCr ADAMS. 15 

game of life Adams coolly and wisely husbanded 
every card which came into his hand, with a 
steady view to probable future contingencies, 
and with the resolve to win in the long run. 
So now the resolution which he took in the 
present question illustrated the clearness of 
his mind and the strength of his character. 
To go with his father to England would be to 
enjoy a life precisely fitted to his natural and 
acquired tastes, to mingle with the men who 
were making history, to be cognizant of the 
weightiest of public affairs, to profit by all that 
the grandest city in the world had to show. 
It was easy to be not only allured by the pros- 
pect but also to be deceived by its apparent 
advantages. Adams, however, had the sense 
and courage to turn his back on it, and to go 
home to tlie meagre shores and small society of 
iVew England, there to become a boy again, to 
enter Harvard College, and come under all its at 
that time rigid and petty regulations. It almost 
seems a mistake, but it was not. Already he 
was too ripe and too wise to blunder. He him- 
BCif gives us his characteristic and suflBcient 
reasons : — 

" Were I now to go with my father probably my 
immediate satisfaction might be greater than it will 
be in returning to America. After having been 
iravelling for those seven years almost and all ovei 



16 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Europe, and having been in the world and among 
company for three ; to return to spend one or two 
years in the pale of a college, subjected to all the 
rules which I have so long been freed from ; and 
afterwards not expect (however good an opinion I 
may have of myself) to bring myself into notice 
under three or four years more, if ever ! It is really 
a prospect somewhat discouraging for a youth of my 
ambition, (for I have ambition though I hope its ob- 
ject is laudable). But still 

' Oh ! how wretched 
• Is that poor man, that hangs on Princes' favors/ 

or on those of any body else. I am determined that 
so long as I shall be able to get my own living in an 
honorable manner, I will depend upon no one. My 
father has been so much taken up all his lifetime 
with the interests of the public, that his own fortune 
has suffered by it : so that his children will have to 
provide for themselves, which I shall never be able 
to do if I loiter away my precious time in Europe 
and shun going home until I am forced to it. With 
an ordinary share of common sense, which I hope I 
enjoy, at least in America I can live independent and 
free ; and rather than live otherwise I would wish to 
die before <^he time when I shall be left at my own 
discretion. I have before me a striking example of 
the distressing and humiliating situation a person ia 
reduced to by adopting a different line of conduct, 
and I am determined not to fall into the same error.'' 

It ia needless to comment upon such spiri* 



JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. 17 

and sense, or upon such just appreciation of 
what was feasible, wise, and right for him, as 
a New Englander whose surroundings and pros- 
pects were widely different from those of the 
society about him. He must have been strongly 
imbued by nature with the instincts of his birth 
place to have formed, after a seven years' ab- 
sence at his impressible age, so correct a judg- 
ment of the necessities and possibilities of his 
own career in relationship to the people and 
ideas of his own country. 

Home accordingly he came, and by assiduity 
prepared himself in a very short time to enter 
the junior class at Harvard College, whence 
he was graduated in high standing in 1787. 
From there he went to Newburyport, then a 
thriving and active seaport enriched by tho 
noble trade of privateering in addition to more 
regular maritime business, and entered as a 
law student the office of Theophilus Parsons, 
afterwards the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. 
On July 15, 1790, being twenty-three years old, 
he was admitted to practise. Immediately 
afterward he established himself in Boston, 
where for a time he felt strangely solitary. 
Clients of course iid not oesiege his doors in 
the first year, and he appears tc have waited 
rather stubbornly than cheerfully for more act- 
ive days. These came in good time, and during 

2 



18 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

the second, third, and fourth years, his business 
grew apace to encouraging dimensions. 

He was, however, doing other work than 
that of the law, and much more important in 
its bearing upon his future career. He could 
not keep his thoughts, nor indeed his hands, 
from public affairs. When, in 1791, Thomas 
Paine produced the " Rights of Man," Thomas 
Jefferson acting as midwife to usher the bant- 
ling before the people of the United States, 
Adams's indignation was fired, and he pub- 
lished anonymously a series of refuting pa- 
pers over the signature of Publicola. These 
attracted much attention, not only at home 
but also abroad, and were by many attributed 
to John Adams. Two years later, during the 
excitement aroused by the reception and sub- 
sequent outrageous behavior here of the French 
minister, Genet, Mr. Adams again published 
in the Boston " Centinel " some papers over the 
signature of Marcellus, discussing with much 
ability the then new and perplexing question of 
the neutrality which should be observed by thia 
country in European wars. These were fol- 
lowed by more, over the signature of Colum- 
bus, and afterward by still more in the name of 
Barnevelt, all strongly reprobating the course 
:>f the crazy-headed foreigner. The writer was 
not permitted to remain long unknown. It if 



JOHN ilUlNCY ADAMS 19 

not certain, but it is highly probable, that to 
these articles was due the nomination which 
Mr. Adams received shortly afterward from 
President Washington, as Minister Resident at 
the Hague. This nomination was sent in to the 
Senate, May 29, 1794, and was unanimously 
confirmed on the following day. It may be 
imagined that the change from the moderate 
practice of his Boston law office to a European 
court, of which he so well knew the charms, 
was not distasteful to him. There are pas- 
sHg(^s in his Diary which indicate that he bad 
been chafing with irrepressible impatience " in 
tlmt state of useless and disgraceful insignifi 
eancy," to which, as it seemed to him, he was rel- 
egated, so tliat at the age of twenty-five, when 
" many of the characters who were born for the 
benefit of their fellow creatures, have rendered 
themselves conspicuous among their contempo- 
raries, ... I still find myself as obscure, as un- 
known to the world, as the most indolent or the 
most stupid of human beings." Entertaining 
Buch a restless ambition, he of course accepted 
the proffered office, though not without some 
expression of unexplained doubt. October 31. 
1794, found him at the Hague, after, a voyage 
of considerable peril in a leaky ship, commanded 
"►y a blundering captain. He was a young dip- 
lomat, indeed ; it was on his twenty-seventh 
Sirthday that he received his commission. 



2U JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

The minister made his advent upon a ta* 
multooiis scene. All Europe was getting under 
arms in the long and desperate struggle with 
France. Scarcely had he presented his cre- 
dentials to the Stadtholder ere tnat dignitary 
was obliged to flee before the conquering stand- 
ards of the French. Pichegru marched into 
the capital city of the Low Countries, hung out 
tlie tri-color and established the " Batavian 
Republic " as the ally of France. The diplo- 
matic representatives of most of the European 
powers forthwith left, and Mr. Adams was 
strongly moved to do the same, though for 
reasons different from those which actuated 
his compeers. He was not, like them, placed 
\n an unpleasant position by the new condition 
of affairs, but on the contrary he was very cor- 
dially treated by the French and their Dutch 
partisans, and was obliged to fall back upon his 
native prudence to resist their compromising 
overtures and dangerous friendship. Without 
givir.g offence he yet kept clear of entangle- 
ments, and showed a degree of wisdom and 
skill which many older and more experienced 
Americans failed to evince, either abroad or 
at home, during these exciting years. But he 
appeared to be left without occupation in the 
altered condition of affairs, and therefore was 
considering the propriety of returning, when ad 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMti. 21 

7ices from home induced him to stay. Wash- 
ington especially wrote that he must not think 
of retiring, and prophesied that he would soon 
be " found at the head of the diplomatic corps, 
be the government administered by whomsoever 
the people may choose." He remained, there- 
fore, at the Hague, a shrewd and close observer 
of the exciting events occurring around him. 
industriously pursuing an extensive course of 
study and reading, making useful acquaint- 
ances, acquiring familiarity with foreign lan- 
guages, with the usages of diplomacy, and the 
habits of distinguished society. He had little 
public business to transact, it is true ; but at 
least his time was well spent for his own im- 
provement. 

An episode in his life at the Hague was hia 
visit to England, where he was directed to ex- 
change ratifications of the treaty lately nego- 
tiated by Mr. Jay. But a series of vexatioua 
delays, apparently maliciously contrived, de- 
tained him so long that upon his arrival he 
found this specific task already accomplished 
b}'^ Mr. Deas. He was probably not disap- 
pointed that his name thus escaped connection 
with engagements so odious to a large part of 
bhe nation. H3 had, however, some further 
business of an informal chai'acter to transact 
n^ith Lord Grenville, and in endeavoring to 



22 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

conduct it found himself rather awkwardly 
placed. He was not minister to the Court oi 
St. James, having been only vaguely authorized 
to discuss certain arrangements in a tentative 
way, without the power to enter into any de 
finitive agreement. But the English Cabinet 
strongly disliking Mr. Deas, who in the ab 
sence of Mr. Pinckney represented for the 
time the United States, and much preferring 
to negotiate with Mr. Adams, sought by many 
indirect and artful subterfuges to thrust upon 
him the character of a regularly accredited 
minister. He had much ado to avoid, without 
offence, the assumption of functions to which 
he had no title, but which were with designing 
courtesy forced upon him. His cool and mod- 
erate temper, however, carried him successfully 
ilirough the whole business, alike in its social 
and its diplomatic aspect. 

Another negotiation, of a private nature also, 
he brought to a successful issue during these few 
months in London. He made the acquaintance 
of Miss Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter 
of Joshua Johnson, then American Consul at 
London, and niece of that Governor Johnson of 
Maryland who had signed the Declaration of 
Independence and was afterwards placed on 
the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
>tates. To this lady he became engaged; ana 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 23 

returning not long afterward he was married 
to her on July 26, 1797. It was a thoroughly 
happy and, for him, a life-long union. 

President Washington, toward the close of 
his second term, transferred Mr. Adams to the 
Court of Portugal. But before his departure 
thither his destination was changed. Some de- 
gree of embarrassment was felt about this time 
concerning his further continuance in public 
office, by reason of his father's accession to the 
Presidency. He wrote to his mother a manly 
and spirited letter, rebuking her for carelessly 
dropping an expression indicative of a fear that 
he might look for some favor at his father's 
hands. He could neither solicit nor expect any- 
thing, he justly said, and he was pained that 
his mother should not know him better than to 
entertain any apprehension of his feeling other- 
wise. It was a perplexing position in which 
the two were placed. It would be a great hard- 
ihip to cut short the son's career because of the 
success of the father, yet the reproach of nepo- 
tism could not be lightly encountered, even with 
the backing of clear consciences. Washington 
lame kindly to the aid of his doubting suc- 
:essor, and in a letter highly complimentary to 
Mr. John Quincy Adams strongly urged that 
well-merited promotion ought not to be kept 
h-om him, foretelling for him a distinguished 



24 JOHN QUIIvvi ADAMS. 

future ill the diplomatic service. These repre- 
sentations prevailed ; and the President's only 
action as concerned his son consisted in chang- 
ing his destination from Portugal to Prussia, 
both missions being at that time of the same 
grade, though that to Prussia was then estab- 
lished for the first time by the making and con- 
firming of this nomination. 

To Berlin, accordingly, Mr. Adams proceeded 
in November, 1797, and had the somewhat cruel 
experience of being " questioned at the gates 
by a dapper lieutenant, who did not know, until 
one of his private soldiers explained to him, who 
the United States of America were." Overcom- 
ing this unusual obstacle to a ministerial ad- 
vent, and succeeding, after many months, in get- 
ting through all the introductory formalities, he 
found not much more to be done at Berlin thaa 
there had been at the Hague. But such useful 
work as was open to him he accomplished in the 
shape of a treaty of amity and commerce be- 
tween Prussia and the United States. This 
having been duly ratified by both the powers, 
his further stay seemed so useless that he wrote 
home suggesting his readiness to return ; and 
while awaiting a reply he travelled through some 
portions of Europe which he had not before 
Been. His recall was one of the last acts of his 
Eathei s administration, made, says Mr. Seward 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. "Zb 

* that Mr. Jefferson might have no embarrass- 
ment in that direction," but quite as probably 
dictated by a vindictive desire to show how wide 
was the gulf of animosity which had opened be- 
tween the family of the disappointed ex-Presi- 
dent and his triumphant rival. 

Mr. Adams, immediately upon his arrival at 
home, prepared to return to the practice of his 
profession. It was not altogether an agreeable 
transition from an embassy at the courts of Eu- 
rope to a law ojSice in Boston, with the neces- 
sity of furbishing up long disused knowledge, 
and a second time patiently awaiting the influx 
of clients. But he faced it with his stubborn 
temper and practical sense. The slender prom- 
ise which he was able to discern in the political 
outlook could not fail to disappoint him, since 
liis native predilections were unquestionably and 
strongly in favor of a public career. During 
his absence party animosities had been develop- 
ing rapidly. The first great party victory since 
the organization of the government had just 
been won, after a very bitter struggle, by the Re- 
publicans or Democrats, as they were then in- 
diiferently called, whos*^ exuoerant delight found 
its full counterpart in the angry despondency 
of the Federalists. That irascible old gentle- 
uan, the elder Adams, having experienced a 
rery Waterloo defeat in the contest for the Prea 



26 JOHN aUlNCY ADAMS. 

Idency, had ridden away from the capital, actu- 
ally in a wild rage, on the night of the 3d of 
March, 1801, to avoid the humiliating pageant 
of Mr. Jefferson's inauguration. Yet far more 
fierce than this natural party warfare was the 
internal dissension which rent the Federal party 
in twain. Those cracks upon the surface and 
subterraneous rumblings, which the experienced 
observer could for some time have noted, had 
opened with terrible uproar into a gaping 
chasm, when John Adams, still in the Presi- 
dency, suddenly announced his determination to 
send a mission to France at a crisis when nearly 
all his party were looking for war. Perhaps 
this step was, as his admirers claim, an act 
of pure and disinterested statesmanship. Cer- 
tainly its result was fortunate for the country 
at large. But for John Adams it was ruinous. 
At the moment when he made the bold move, 
he doubtless expected to be followed by his 
party. Extreme was his disappointment and 
boundless his wrath, when he found that he had 
at his back only a fraction, not improbably less 
than half, of that party. He learned with in- 
finite chagrin that he had only a divided empire 
with a private individual ; that it was not safe 
for him, the President of the United States, tc 
originate any important measure without first 
consulting a lawyer quietly engasjed in th« 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 21 

practice of his profession in New York; that, 
In sliort, at least a moiety, in which were to be 
found the most intelligent members, of the great 
Federal party, when in search of guidance, 
turned their faces toward Alexander Hamil- 
ton rather than toward John Adams. These 
Ilamiltonians by no means relished the French 
mission, so that from this time forth a schism of 
intense bitterness kept the Federal party asun • 
der, and John Adams hated Alexander Hamil- 
ton with a vigor not surpassed in the annals of 
human antipathies. His rage was not assuaged 
by the conduct of this dreaded foe in the presi- 
dential campaign ; and the defeated candidate 
always preferred to charge his failure to Ham- 
ilton's machinations rather than to the real will 
of the people. This, however, was unfair ; it 
was perfectly obvious that a majority of the 
nation had embraced Jeffersonian tenets, and 
that Federalism was moribund. 

To this condition of affairs John Quincy 
Adams returned. Fortunately he had been com- 
pelled to bear no part in the embroilments of 
the past, and his sagacity must have led him, 
while listening with filial sympathy to the inter- 
pretations placed upon events by his incensed 
parent, yet to make liberal allowance for the dis- 
torting effects of *Am old gentleman's rage. Still 
"t was in the main only ratural for him to re- 



28 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

gard himself as a Federalist of the Adams fac* 
tioii. His proclivities had always been with that 
party. In Massachusetts the educated and well- 
to-do classes were almost unanimously of that 
way of thinking. The select coterie of gentle- 
men in the State, who in those times bore an ac- 
tive and influential part in politics, were nearly 
all Hamiltonians, but the adherents of President 
Adams were numerically strong. Nor was the 
younger Adams himself long left without his 
private grievance against Mr. Jefferson, who 
promptly used the authority vested in him by a 
new statute to remove Mr. Adams from the po 
sition of commissioner in bankruptcy, to which, 
at the time of his resuming business, he had been 
appointed by the judge of the district court. 
Long afterward Jefferson sought to escape the 
odium of this apparently malicious and, for 
those days, unusual action, by a very Jefferson- 
ian explanation, tolerably satisfactory to those 
persons who believed it. 

On April 5, 1802, Mr. Adams was chosen 
by the Federalists of Boston to represent them 
in the State Senate. The office was at that 
time still sought by men of the best ability and 
position, and though it was hardly a step up- 
ward on the political ladder for one who had 
I'epresented the nation in foreign parts for eight 
vears, vet Mr. Adams was well content to ao 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 2V» 

cept it. At least it reopened the door of p/> 
litical life, and moreover one of his steadfa*/ 
maxims was never to refuse any function whir ft 
the people sought to impose upon him. It is 
worth noting, for its bearing upon controver- 
sies soon to be encountered in this narrative, 
that forty-eight hours had not elapsed after Mr. 
Adams had taken his seat before he ventured 
upon a display of independence which caused 
much irritation to his Federalist associates. He 
had the hardihood to propose that the Federalist 
majority in the legislature should permit the 
Republican minority to enjoy a proportional 
representation in the council. ''It was the first 
act of my legislative life," he wrote many years 
afterward, " and it marked the principle by 
which my whole public life has been governed 
from that day to this. My proposal was unsuc- 
t?essful, and perhaps it forfeited whatever con- 
fidence might have been otherwise bestowed 
upon me as a party follower." Indeed, all his 
life long Mr. Adams was never submissive to 
the party whip, but voted upon every question 
precisely according to his opinion of its merits, 
without the slightest regard to the political 
company in which for the time being he might 
find himself. A compeer of his in the United 
States Senate once said of him, that he regarded 
«very public measure which came up as he 



BO JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 

would a proposition in Euclid, abstracted from 
any party considerations. Tliese frequent dere- 
lictions of his were at first forgiven with a 
magnanimity really very creditable, so long as 
it lasted, especially to the Hamiltonians in the 
Federal party ; and so liberal was tliis forbear- 
ance that when in February, 1803, the legis- 
lature had to elect a Senator to the United 
States Senate, he was chosen upon the fourth 
ballot by 86 votes out of 171. This was the 
more gratifying to him and the more handsome 
on the part of the an ti- Adams men in the party, 
because the place was eagerly sought by Tim- 
othy Pickering, an old man who had strong 
claims growing out of an almost life-long and 
verv ejB&cient service in their ranks, and who 
was moreover a most staunch adherent of Gen- 
eral Hamilton. 

So in October, 1803, we find Mr. Adams on 
his way to Washington, the raw and unattract- 
ive village which then constituted the national 
capital, wherein there was not, as the pious 
New Englander instantly noted, a church of 
any denomination ; but those who were relig- 
iously disposed were obliged to attend services 
" usually performed on Sundays at the Treasury 
Ofiice and at the Capitol." With what antici- 
Rations Mr. Adams's mind was filled during hi« 
murney to this embryotic city his Diary doei 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 81 

not tell ; but if they were in any degree cheer- 
ful or sanguine they were destined to cruel 
disappointment. He was now probably to ap- 
preciate for the first time the fierce vigor of 
the hostility which his father had excited. In 
Massachusetts social connections and friendships 
probably mitigated the open display of rancor 
to which in Washington full sway was given. 
It was not only the Republican majority who 
Bhowed feelings which in them were at least fair 
if they were strong, but the Federal minority 
were maliciously pleased to find in the son of 
the ill-starred John Adams a victim on whom 
to vent that spleen and abuse which were so 
provokingly ineffective against the solid work- 
ing niMJority of their opponents in Congress. 
The Republicans trampled upon the Federalists, 
and the Federalists trampled on John Quincy 
Adams. He spoke seldom, and certainly did 
not weary the Senators, yet whenever he rose 
to his feet he was sure of a cold, too often 
almost an insulting, reception. By no chance 
or possibility could anything which he said or 
suggested please his prejudiced auditors. The 
worst augury for any measure was his support ; 
anv motion which ne m^ide was sure to be voted 
down, though not unfrr'quently substantially 
the same matter being afterward moved by 
lomebody else would be readily carried. That 



32 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

cordiality, assistance, and sense of fellowshij 
which Senators from the same State customarily 
expect and obtain from each other could not be 
enjoyed by him. For shortly after his arrival 
in Washington, Mr. Pickering had been chosen 
to fill a vacancy in the other Massachusetts 
senatorsLip, and appeared upon the scene as a 
most unwelcome colleague. For a time, indeed, 
an outward semblance of political comradeship 
was maintained between them, but it would 
have been folly for an Adams to put faith in a 
Pickering, and perhaps vice versa. This position 
of his, as the unpopular member of an un- 
popular minority, could not be misunderstood, 
and many allusions to it occur in his Diary. 
One day he notes a motion rejected ; another 
day, that he has " nothing to do but to make 
fruitless opposition ; " he constantly recites that 
he has voted with a small minority, and at 
least once he himself composed the whole of 
that minority; soon after his arrival he says 
that an amendment proposed by him " will 
certainly not pass ; and, indeed, I have already 
Been enough to ascertain that no amendments 
of my proposing will obtain in the Senate aa 
now filled " ; again, " I presented my three 
resolutions, which raised a storm as violent as 
I expected " ; and on the same day he writes 
' I have no doubt of incurring much censure 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 33 

and obloquy for this measure ; " a day or two 
later he speaks of certain persons " who hate 
me rather more than they love any prhiciple ; '* 
when he expressed an opinion in favor of ratify- 
ing a treaty with the Creeks, he remarks quite 
philosophically, that he believes it "surprised 
almost every member of the Senate, and dis- 
satisfied almost all ; " when he wanted a com- 
mittee raised he did not move it himself, but 
suggested the idea to another Senator, for " I 
knew that if I moved it a spirit of jealousy 
would immediately be raised against doing any- 
thing." Writing once of some resolutions which 
he intended to propose, he says that they are 
"another feather again j 
perate and fearful canse 
barked, but I 
either a coward o| 
find a committee, 
making its report 
notified of its meeting. 

It would be idle to suppose that any man 
could be sufficiently callous not to feel keenly 
Buch treatment. Mr. Adams was far from callous 
and he felt it deeply. But he was not crushed 
or discouraged by it, as weaker spirits would 
have been, nor betrayed into any acts of foolish 
Jinger which must have recoiled upon himself. 
In him warm feelings were found in singular 

3 




34 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

combination with a cool head. An unyielding 
temper and an obstinate courage, an invincible 
confidence in his own judgment, and a stern 
conscienticmsness carried him through these 
earlier years of severe trial as they had after- 
wards to carry him through many more. " Tjie 
qualities of mind most peculiarly called for,'* 
he reflects in the Diary, " are firmness, per- 
severance, patience, coolness, and forbearance. 
The prospect is not promising ; yet the part 
to act may be as honorably performed as if 
success could attend it/' He understood the 
situation perfectly and met it with a better 
Bkill than that of the veteran politician. By a 
long and tedious but sure process he forced his 
way to steadily increasing influence, and by the 
close of his fourth year we find him taking a 
part in the business of the Senate which may 
be fairly called prominent and important. He 
was conquering success. 

But if Mr. Adams's unpopularity was partly 
due to the fact that he was the son of his fa- 
ther, it was also largely attributable not only 
to his unconciliatory manners but to more sub- 
stantial habits of mind and character. It ia 
probably impossible for any public man, really 
independent in his political action, to lead a 
very comfortable life amid the struggles of party 
Under the disadvantages involved in this habit 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. .^5 

Mr. Adams labored to a remarkable degree. 
Since parties were first organized in tiiis Re- 
public no American statesman has ever ap- 
proached him in persistent freedom of thought, 
speech, and action. He was regarded as a 
Federalist, but his Federalism was subject to 
many modifications; the members of that party 
never were sure of his adherence, and felt 
bound to him by no very strong ties of polit- 
ical fellowship. Towards the close of his sen- 
atorial term he recorded, in reminiscence, that 
he had more often voted with the administra- 
tion than with the opposition. 

The first matter of importance concerning 
which he was obliged to act, was the acquisi- 
tion of Louisiana and its admission as a state 
of the Union. The Federalists were bitterly op- 
posed to this measure, regarding it as an undue 
strengthening of the South and of the slavery 
influence, to the destruction of the fair balance 
of power between the two great sections of the 
country. It was not then the moral aspect of 
the slavery element which stirred the northern 
temper, but only the antagonism of interests 
between the commercial cities of the North and 
the agricultural communities of the South. In 
the discussions and votes which took place in 
tills business Mr. Adams was in favor of the 
purchitse, but denied with much emphasis the 



36 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

constitutionality of the process by which the 
purchased territory was brought into the fel 
lowship of States. This imperfect allegiance 
to the party gave more offence than satisfac' 
tion, and he found himself soundly berated in 
leading Federalist newspapers in New Eng- 
land, and angrily threatened with expulsion 
from the party. But in the famous impeach- 
ment of Judge Chase, which aroused very 
Btrong feelings, Mr. Adams was fortunately 
able to vote for acquittal. He regarded this 
measure, as well as the impeachment of Judge 
Pickering at the preceding session as parts of 
an elaborate scheme on the part of the Presi- 
dent for degrading the national judiciary and 
rendering it subservient to the legislative 
branch of the government. So many, how- 
ever, even of Mr. Jefferson's staunch adherents 
revolted against his requisitions on this occa- 
sion, and he himself so far lost heart before 
the final vote was taken, that several Repub- 
licans voted with the Federalists, and Mr. Ad- 
ams could hardly claim much credit with his 
party for standing by them in this emergency. 
It takes a long while for such a man to se- 
cure respect, and great ability for him ever to 
achieve influence. In time, however, Mr. Ad- 
ams saw gratifying indications that he was acv 
quiring both, and in February, 1806, we fina 
kim writing : — 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 37 

" This is the third session I have sat in Congress. 
I came in as a member of a very small minority, and 
during the two former sessions almost uniformly 
avoided to take a lead ; any other course would have 
been dishonest or ridiculous. On the very few and 
unimportant objects which I did undertake, I met 
at first with universal opposition. The last session 
my influence rose a little, at the present it has hith- 
erto been apparently rising." 

He was so far a cool and clear-headed judge, 
even in his own case, that this encouraging es- 
timate may be accepted as correct upon his 
sole authority witliout other evidence. But the 
fair prospect was overcast almost in its dawn- 
ing, and a period of supreme trial and of ap- 
parently irretrievable ruin was at hand. 

Topics were coming forward for discussion 
concerning which no American could be indif- 
ferent, and no man of Mr. Adams's spirit could 
be silent. The policy of Great Britain towards 
this country, and the manner in which it was 
to be met, stirred piofoiind feelings and opened 
Buch fierce dissensions as it is now difficult to 
appreciate. For a brief time Mr. Adams was 
to be a prominent actor before the people. It 
is fortunately needless to repeat, as it must 
ever be painful to remember, the familiar and 
too humiliating tale of the part which France 
ind England were permitted fcr so many years 



S8 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

fco play in our national politics, when our par- 
ties were not divided upon American questions, 
but wholly by their sympathies with one or 
other of these contending European powers. 
Under Washington the English party had, with 
infinite difficulty, been able to prevent their ad- 
versaries from fairly enlisting the United States 
as active partisans of France, in spite of the 
fact that most insulting treatment was received 
from that country. Under John Adams the 
same so-called British faction had been baulked 
in their hope of precipitating a war with the 
French. Now in Mr. Jefferson's second admin- 
istration, the French party having won the as- 
cendant, the new phase of the same long strug- 
gle presented the question, whether or not we 
should be drawn into a war with Great Britain. 
Grave as must have been the disasters of such a 
war in 1806, grave as they were when the war 
actually came six years later, yet it is impossi- 
ble to recall the provocations which were in- 
flicted upon us without almost regretting that 
prudence was not cast to the winds and any 
woes encountered in preference to unresisting 
submission to such insolent outrages. Our 
gorge rises at the narration three quarters of a 
:entury after the acts were done. 

Mr. Adams took his position early and boldly 
In February, 1806, he introduced into the Sen 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 39 

ate certain resolutions strongly condemnatory of 
the right, claimed and vigorously exercised by 
the British, of seizing neutral vessels employed 
in conducting with the enemies of Great Brit- 
ain any trade which had been customarily pro- 
hibited by that enemy in time of peace. This 
doctrine was designed to shut out American 
merchants from certain privileges in trading 
with French colonies, which had been accorded 
only since France had become involved in war 
with Great Britain. The principle was utterly 
illegal and extremely injurious. Mr. Adams, 
in his first resolution, stigmatized it "as an un- 
provoked aggression upon the property of the 
citizens of these United States, a violation of 
*^their neutral rights, and an encvoachment upon 
their national independence." By his second 
resolution, the President was requested to de- 
mand and insist upon the restoration of proj> 
erty seized under this pretext, and upon indem- 
nification for property already confiscated. By a 
rare good fortune, Mr. Adams had the pleasure 
of seeing his propositions carried, only slightly 
modified by the omission of the words " to in- 
sist." But they were carried, of course, by Re- 
publican votes, and they by no means advanced 
their mover in the favor of the Federalist party. 
Strange as it may seem, that party, of which 
many of the foremost supDorters were engaged 



40 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

in the very commerce which Great Britain 
aimed to suppress and destroy, seemed not to 
be so much incensed against her as against 
their own government. The theory of the 
party was, substantially, that England had been 
driven into these measures by the friendly tone 
of our government towards France, and by her 
own stringent and overruling necessities. The 
cure was not to be sought in resistance, not 
even in indignation and remonstrance addressed 
to that power, but rather in cementing an alli- 
ance with her, and even, if need should be, in 
taking active part in her holy cause. The feel- 
ing seemed to be that we merited the chastise- 
ment because we had not allied ourselves with 
the chastiser. These singular notions of the 
Federalists, however, were by no means the no- 
tions of Mr. John Quincy Adams, as we shall 
Boon see. 

On April 18, 1806, the Non -importation Act 
received the approval of the President. It was 
the first measure indicative of resentment or re- 
taliation which was taken by our government. 
When it was upon its passage it encountered 
the vigorous resistance of the Federalists, but 
received the support of Mr. Adams. On May 
16, 1806, the British government made another 
long stride in the course of lawless oppression 
»f neutrals, which phrase, as commerce the* 



JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 41 

was, signified little else than Americans. A 
proclamation was issued declaring the whole 
coast of the European continent, from Brest to 
the mouth of the Elbe, to be under blockade. 
In fact, of course, the coast was not blockaded, 
and the proclamation was a falsehood, an un- 
justifiable effort to make words do the work of 
war-ships. The doctrine which it was thus en- 
deavored to establish had never been admitted 
into international law, has ever since been re- 
pudiated by universal consent of all nations, 
and is intrinsically preposterous. The British, 
however, designed to make it effective, and set 
to work in earnest to confiscate all vessels and 
cargoes captured on their way from any neutral 
nation to any port within the proscribed dis- 
trict. On November 21, next following, Napo- 
leon retaliated by the Berlin decree, so called, 
declaring the entire British Isles to be under 
blockade, and forbidding any vessel which had 
been in any English port after publication of 
his decree to enter any port in the dominions 
under his control. In January, 1807, England 
made the next move by an order, likewise in 
contravention of international law, forbidding 
to neutrals all commerce between ports of the 
enemies of Great Britain. On November 11, 
1807, the famous British Order in Council was 
issued, declarmg neutral vessels and cargoes 



42 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

bound to any port or colony of any country 
with which England was then at war, and 
which was closed to English ships, to be liable 
to capture and confiscation. A few days later 
November 25, 1807, another Order established 
a rate of duties to be paid in England upon all 
neutral merchandise which should be permitted 
to be carried in neutral bottoms to countries 
at war with that power. December 17, 1807, 
Napoleon retorted by the Milan decree, which 
declared denationalized and subject to capture 
and condemnation every vessel, to whatsoever 
nation belonging, which should have submitted 
to search by an English ship, or should be on a 
voyage to England, or should have paid any tax 
to the English government. All these regula- 
tions, though purporting to be aimed at neutrals 
generally, in fact bore almost exclusively upon 
the United States, who alone were undertak- 
ing to conduct any neutral commerce worthy of 
mention. As Mr. Adams afterwards remarked, 
the effect of these illegal proclamations and un- 
justifiable novel doctrines "placed the com- 
merce and shipping of the United States, with 
regard to all Europe and European colonies 
(Sweden alone excepted), in nearly the same 
state as it would have been, if, on that same 
11th of November, England and France had 
both declared war against the United Statea 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 43 

The merchants of this country might as well 
have burned their ships as have submitted to 
these deci'ees. 

All this while the impressment of American 
seamen by British ships of war was being vigor- 
ously prosecuted. This is one of those outrages 
80 long ago laid away among the mouldering 
tombs in the historical grave-yard that few per- 
sons now appreciate its enormity, or the extent 
to which it was carried. Those who will be at 
the pains to ascertain the truth in the matter 
will feel that the bloodiest, most costly, and 
most disastrous war would have been better 
than tame endurance of treatment so brutal 
and unjustifiable that it finds no parallel even 
in the long and dark list of wrongs which Great 
Britain has been wont to inflict upon all the 
weaker or the uncivilized peoples with whom 
she has been brought or has gratuitously forced 
herself into unwelcome contact. It was not an 
occasional act of high-handed arrogance that 
was done ; there were not only a few unfortu- 
nate victims, of whom a large proportion might 
be of unascertained nationality. It was an or- 
ganized system worked upon a very large scale. 
Every American seaman felt it necessary to 
have a certificate of citizenship, accompanied 
by a description of his features and of all the 
marks upon his person, as Mr. Adams said, 



44 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

"like the advertisement for a runaway negro 
slave." Nor was even this protection by any 
means sure to be always efficient. The num- 
ber of undoubted American citizens who were 
seized rose in a few years actually to many 
thousands. They were often taken without so 
much as a false pretence to right ; but with the 
acknowledgment that they were Americans, 
they were seized upon the plea of a necessity 
for their services in the British ship. Some 
American vessels were left so denuded of sea- 
men that they were lost at sea for want of hands 
to man them ; the destruction of lives as well as 
property, unquestionably thus caused, was im- 
mense. When after the lapse of a long time 
and of infinite negotiation the American citi- 
zenship of some individual was clearly shown, 
still the chances of his return were small ; some 
false and ignoble subterfuge was resorted to ; 
he was not to be found ; the name did not occur 
on the rolls of the navy ; he had died, or been 
discharged, or had deserted, or had been shot. 
The more illegal the act committed by any 
British officer the more sure he was of reward, 
cill it seemed that the impressment of American 
citizens was an even surer road to promotion 
than valor in an engagement with the enemy 
Such were the substantial wrongs inflicted b^ 
Groat Britain ; nor were any pains taken tc 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 46 

sloak their character ; on the contrary, they 
were done with more than British insolence 
and offensiveness, and were accompanied with 
insults which alone constituted sufficient prov- 
ocation to war. To all this, for a long time, 
nothing but empty and utterly futile protests 
were opposed by this country. The affair of 
the Chesapeake, indeed, threatened for a brief 
moment to bring things to a crisis. That ves- 
sel, an American frigate, commanded by Com- 
modore Barron, sailed on June 22, 1807, from 
Hampton Roads. Tlie Leopard, a British fifty- 
gun ship, followed her, and before she was out 
of sight of land, hailed her and demanded the 
delivery of four men, of whom three at least 
were surely native Americ^ms. Barron refused 
the demand, though his sliip was wholly unpre- 
pared for action. Thereupon the Englishman 
opened his broadsides, killed three men and 
wounded sixteen, boarded the Chesapeake and 
took off the four sailors. They were carried to 
Halifax and tried by court-martial for deser- 
tion : one of them was hanged ; one died in con- 
finement, and five years elapsed before the other 
two were returned to the Chesapeake in Boston 
harbor. This wound was sufficiently deep td 
arouse a real spirit of resentment and revenge, 
and England went so fat as to dispatch Mr 
Rose to this country upon a pretended mission 



46 JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 

of peace, though the fraudulent character of hia 
errand was sufficiently indicated by the fact 
that within a few hours after his departure the 
first of the above named Orders in Council wag 
issued but had not been communicated to him. 
As Mr. Adams indignantly said, " tlie same pen- 
ful of ink which signed his instructions might 
have been used also to sign these illegal orders." 
Admiral Berkeley, the commander of the Leop- 
ard, received the punishment which he might 
justly have expected if precedent was to count 
for anything in the naval service of Great 
Britain, — he was promoted. 

It is hardly worth while to endeavor to 
measure the comparative wrongfulness of the 
conduct of England and of France. The be- 
havior of each was utterly unjustifiable ; though 
England by committing the first extreme breach 
of international law gave to France the excuse 
of retaliation. There was, however, vast dif- 
ference in the practical effect of the British and 
French decrees. The former wrought serious 
injury, falling little short of total destruction, 
to American shipping and commerce ; the lat- 
ter were only in a much less degree hurtful. 
The immense naval power of England, and the 
channels in which our trade naturally flowed 
combined to make her destructive capacity a? 
to\^ards us very great. It was the outrages in 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 47 

flicted by her which brought the merchants of 
the United States face to face with ruin ; they 
suffered not very greatly at the hands of Na- 
poleon. Neither could the villainous process 
of impressment be conducted by Frenchmen. 
France gave us cause for war, but England 
seemed resolved to drive us into it. 

As British aggressions grew steadily and rap- 
idly more intolerable, Mr. Adams found himself 
straining farther and farther away from those 
Federalist moorings at which, it must be con- 
fessed, he had long swung very precariously. 
The constituency which lie represented w'as in- 
deed in a quandary so embarrassing as hardly to 
be capable of maintaining any consistent policy. 
Tlie New England of that day was a trading 
community, of which the industry and capital 
were almost exclusively centred in ship-owning 
and commerce. The merchants, almost to a 
man, had long been the most Anglican of Fed- 
eralists in their political sympathies. Now they 
found themselves suffering utterly ruinous treat- 
ment at the hands of those whom they had 
loved overmuch. They were being ruthlessly 
destroyed by their friends, to whom they had 
been, so to speak, almost disloyally loyal. They 
law their business annihilated, their property 
Beized, and yet could not give utterance to re- 
leiitment, or counsel resistance, without such a 



18 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

« 

humiliating devouring of all their own princi- 
ples and sentiments as they could by no possi- 
bility bring themselves to endure. There was 
but one road open to them, and that was the 
ignoble one of casting themselves wholly into 
the arms of England, of rewarding her blows 
with caresses, of submitting to be fairly scourged 
into a servile alliance with her. It is not sur- 
prising that the independent temper of Mr. 
Adams revolted at the position which his party 
seemed not reluctant to assume at this juncture. 
Yet not very much better seemed for a time 
the policy of the administration. Jefferson was 
far from being a man for troubled seasons, 
which called for high spirit and executive en- 
ergy. His flotillas of gunboats and like idle 
and silly fantasies only excited Mr. Adams's 
disgust. In fact, there was upon all sides a 
strong dread of a war with England, not always 
openly expressed, but now perfectly visible, aris- 
ing with some from regard for that country, in 
others prompted by fear of her power. Alone 
among public men Mr. Adams, while earnestly 
hoping to escape war, was not willing to seek 
that escape by unlimited weakness and un- 
bounded submission to lawless injury. 

On November 17, 1807, Mr. Adams, whc 
oever in his life allowed fear to become a mo- 
tive, wrote, with obvious contempt and indig 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 49 

nation: ''I observe among the members great 
embarrassment, alarm, anxiety, and confusion 
of mind, but no preparation for any measure 
of vigor, and an obvious strong disposition to 
yield all that Great Britain may require, to pre- 
serve peace, under a thin external show of dig- 
nity and bravery." This tame and vacillating 
spirit roused his ire, and as it was chiefly mani- 
fested by his own party it alienated him from 
them farther tlian ever. Yet his wrath was so 
far held in reasonable check by his discretion 
that he would still have liked to avoid the peril- 
ous conclusion of arms, and tliough his impulse 
was to fight, yet he could not but recognize that 
the sensible course was to be content, for the 
time at least, with a manifestation of resent- 
ment, and the most vigorous acts short of wai 
which the government could be induced to un- 
dertake. On thid sentiment were based his in- 
troduction of the aforementioned resohitions, his 
willingness to support the administration, and 
his vote for the Non-importation Act in spite of 
a dislike for it as a very imperfectly satisfactory 
measure. But it was not alone his naturally in- 
dependent temper which led him thus to feel so 
differently from other members cf his party. In 
ilurope he had had opportunities of formmg a 
^udgment more accurate than was possible for 
>aost Americans concerning the sentiments and 



60 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

policy of England towards this country. Not 
only had he been present at the negotiations 
resulting in the treaty of peace, but he had also 
afterwards been for several months engaged in 
the personal discussion of commercial questions 
with the British minister of foreign affairs. 
From all that he had thus seen and heard he 
had reached the conviction, unquestionably cor- 
rect, that the British were not only resolved to 
adopt a selfish course towards the United States, 
which might have been expected, but that they 
were consistently pursuing the further distinct 
design of crippling and destroying American 
commerce, to the utmost degree which their own 
extensive trade and great naval authority and 
power rendered possible. So long as he held 
this firm belief, it was inevitable that he should 
be at issue with the Federalists in all matters 
concerning our policy towards Great Britain. 
The ill-will naturally engendered in him by 
this conviction was increased to profound in- 
dignation when illiberal measures were suc- 
ceeded by insults, by substantial wrongs in di- 
rect contravention of law, and by acts properly 
to be described as of real hostility. For Mr. 
Adams was by nature not only independent, but 
resentful and combative. When, soon after the 
attack of the Leopard upon the Chesapeake, h« 
heard the transaction " openly justified at noon 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 51 

day," by a prominent Federalist,^ '' in a public 
insurance office upon the exchange at Boston,' 
his temper rose. " This," he afterward wrote, 
"this was the cause . . . which alienated me 
from that day and forever from the councils of 
the Federal party." When the new^s of that 
outrage reached Boston, Mr. Adams was there, 
and desired that the leading Federalists in 
the city should at once " take the lead in pro- 
moting a strong and clear expression of the 
sentiments of the people, and in an open and 
free-hearted manner, setting aside all party feel- 
ings, declare their determination at that crisis 
to support the government of their country." 
But unfortunately these gentlemen were by no 
means prepared for any such action, and fool- 
ishly left it for the friends of the administration 
to give the first utterance to a feeling which it 
is hard to excuse any American for not enter- 
taining beneath such provocation. It was the 
Jefferson ians, accordingly, who convened " an 
informal meeting of the citizens of Boston and 
the neighboring towns," at which Mr. Adams 
was present, and by which he was put upon 
a committee to draw and report resolutions. 
These resolutions pledged a cheerful coopera- 
tion " in any measures, however serious," which 
he government might deem necessary and a 

^ Mr. Johu Lowell 



52 JOHN QUINCY AD AM is. 

support of the same with '' lives and fortunes." 
The Federalists^ learning too late that their 
backwardness at this crisis was a blunder, 
caused a town meeting to be called at Fanueil 
Hall a few days later. This also Mr. Adams 
attended, and again was put on the committee 
to draft resolutious, which were only a little less 
strong than those of the earlier assemblage. 
But though many of the Federalists thus tar- 
dily and reluctantly fell in with the popular 
sentiment, they were for the most part heartily 
incensed against Mr. Adams. They threatened 
him that he should " have his head taken off 
for apostasy," and gave him to understand that 
he *' should no longer be considered as having 
any communion with the party." If he had 
not already quite left them, they now turned 
him out from their communit}^ But such 
abusive treatment was ill adapted to influence 
a man of his temper. Martyrdom, which in 
time he came to relish, had not now any ter- 
rors for him ; and he would have lost as many 
heads as ever grew on Hydra, ere he would 
hfwe yielded on a point of principle. 
y His spirit was soon to be demonstrated. 
Congress was convened in extra session on 
October 26, 1807. The administration brought 
forward the bill establishing an embargo. The 
measure may now be pronounced a blunder, 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 53 

fcnd its proposal created a howl of rage and 
ansruish from the commercial states, who saw 
in it only their utter ruin. Ah^eady a strong 
sectional feeling had been developed between 
the planters of the South and the merchants of 
the North and East, and the latter now united 
in tlie cry that their quarter was to be ruined 
by the ignorant policy of this Virginian Pres- 
ident. Terrible then was tlieir wrath, when t\\Qj 
actually saw a Massachusetts Senator boldly give 
his vote for wliat they deemed the most odious 
and wicked bill which had ever been present- 
ed in the halls of Congress. Nay, more, they 
learned with horror that Mr. Adams had even 
been a member of tlie committee whicli reported 
the bill, and that he had joined in the report. 
Henceforth tlie Federal party W'as to be like a 
hive of enraged hornets about the devoted ren- 
egade. No abuse whicli they could heap upon 
him seemed nearly adequate to the occasion. 
They despised him ; they loathed him ; they said 
and believed that he was false, selfish, designing, 
ri traitor, an apostate, that he had run away 
trom a failing cause, that he had sold himself. 
The language of contumely was exhausted in 
vain efforts to describe his baseness. Not even 
*^et has the echo of the hard names which he 
;vas called quite died away in the land ; and 
here are still families in New England with 



54 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

tvhom his dishonest tergiversation remains a 
traditional belief. 

Never was any man more unjustly aspersed. 
It is impossible to view all the evidence dis- 
passionately without not only acquitting Mr. 
Adams but greatly admiring his courage, hia 
constancy, his independence. Whether the em- 
bargo was a wise and efficient or a futile and 
useless measure, has little to do with the ques- 
tion of his conduct. The emergency called for 
strong action. The Federalists suggested only a 
temporizing submission, or that we should avert 
the terrible wrath of England by crawling be- 
neath her lashes into political and commercial 
servitude. Mr. Jefferson thought the embargo 
would do, that it would aid him in his negotia- 
tions with England sufficiently to enable him to 
bring her to terms ; he had before thought the 
same of the Non-importation Act. Mr. Adams 
felt, properly enough, concerning both these 
schemes, that they were insufficient and in 
many respects objectionable ; but that to give 
the administration hearty support in the most 
vigorous measures which it was willing to un- 
dertake, was better than to aid an opposition 
utterly nerveless and servile and altogether 
devoid of so much as the desire for efficient 
action. It was no time to stay with the partj 
of weakness ; it was right to strengthen rathe? 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 55 

than to hamper a man so pacific and spiritless as 
Mr. Jefferson ; to show a readiness to forward 
even his imperfect expedients ; to display a 
united and indignant, if not quite a hostile 
front to Great Britain, rather than to exhibit a 
tame and friendly feeling towards her. It was 
for these reasons, which liad already controlled 
his action concerning the non-importation bill, 
that Mr. Adams joined in reporting the em- 
bargo bill and voted for it. He never pre- 
tended that he himself had any especial fancy 
for either of these measures, or that he regarded 
them as the best that could be devised under 
the circumstances. On the contrary, he hoped 
that the passage of the embargo would allow of 
the repeal of its predecessor. That he expected 
Bome good from it, and that it did some little 
good cannot be denied. It did save a great deal 
of American property, both shipping and mer- 
chandise, from seizure and condemnation ; and 
if it cut off the income it at least saved much 
of the principal of our merchants. If only the 
bill had been promptly repealed so soon as this 
protective purpose liad been achieved, without 
awaiting further and altogether impossible ben- 
efits to accrue from it as an offensive measure, 
^ might perhaps have left a better memory be- 
hind it. Unfortunately no one can deny that it 
Iras continued much too long. Mr. Adams saw 



56 * JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

khis error and dreaded the consequences. Aftei 
he had left Congress and had gone back to pri- 
vate Hfe, he exerted all the influence which he 
had with the Republican members of Congress 
to secure its repeal and the substitution of the 
Non-intercourse Act, an exchange which was in 
time accomplished, though much too tardily. 
Nay, much more than this, Mr. Adams stands 
forth almost alone as the advocate of threaten- 
ing if not of actually belligerent measures. He 
expressed his belief that " our internal re- 
sources [were] competent to the establishment 
and maintenance of a naval force, public and 
private, if not fully adequate to the protection 
and defence of our commerce, at least suflBcient 
to induce a retreat from hostilities, and to deter 
from a renewal of them by either of the war- 
ring parties ; " and he insisted that " a system to 
that effect might be formed, ultimately far more 
economical, and certainly more energetic," than 
the embargo. But his " resolution met no en- 
couragement." He found that it was the em- 
bargo or nothing, and he thought the embargo 
was a little better than nothing, as probably it 
was. 

All the arguments which Mr. Adams ad- 
Vvxnced were far from satisfying his constituents 
in those days of wild political excitement, and 
^hey quickly found the means of intimating theii 



JOHN QUI NOT ADAMS. 57 

nnappeasable displeasure in a way certainly not 
open to misapprehension. Mr. Adams's term 
of service in the Senate was to expire on March 
3, 1809. On June 2 and 3, 1808, anticipating by 
many months the customary time for filling the 
coming vacancy, the legislature of Massachusetts 
proceeded to choose James Lloyd, junior, his 
successor. The votes were, in the Senate 21 for 
Mr. Lloyd, 17 for Mr. Adams; in the House 
248 for Mr. Lloyd, and 213 for Mr. Adams. A 
more insulting method of administering a re- 
buke could not have been devised. At the same 
time, in further expression of disapprobation, 
resolutions strongly condemnatory of the em- 
bargo were passed. Mr. Adams was not the man 
to stay where he was not wanted, and on June 8 
he sent in his letter of resignation. On the next 
day Mr. Lloyd was chosen to serve for the bal- 
ance of his term. 

Thus John Quincy Adams changed sides. 
The son of John Adams lost the senatorship 
for persistently supporting the administration 
of Thomas Jefferson. It was indeed a singular 
spectacle ! In 1803 he had been sent to the 
Senate of the United States by Federalists as 
a Federalist; in 1808 he had abjured them and 
they had repudiated him in 1809, as we are 
Boon to see, he received a foreign appointment 
(rem the Republican President Madison, and 



58 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

was confirmed by a Republican Senate. Many 
t)f Mr. Adams's acts, many of his traits, have 
been harshly criticised, but for no act that he 
ever did or ever was charged with doing has 
he been so harshly assailed as for this journey 
from one camp to the other. The gentlemen 
of wealth, position, and influence in Eastern 
Massachusetts, almost to a man, turned against 
him with virulence ; many of their descend- 
ants still cherish the ancestral prejudice ; and 
it may yet be a long while before the last mut- 
terings of this deep-rooted antipathy die away. 
But that they will die away in time cannot be 
doubted. Praise will succeed to blame. Truth 
must prevail in a case where such abundant 
evidence is accessible ; and the truth is that Mr. 
Adams's conduct was not ignoble, mean, and 
traitorous, but honorable, courageous, and dis- 
interested. Those who singled him out for 
assault, though deaf to his arguments, might 
even then have reflected that within a few 
years a large proportion of the whole nation 
had changed in their opinions as he had now at 
last changed in his, so that the party which 
under Washington hardly had an existence and 
under John Adams was not, until the last 
moment, seriously feared, now showed an enor- 
mous majority throughout the whole country 
Even in Massachusetts, the intrenched cam) 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 59 

of the Federalists, one half of the population 
were now Republicans. But that change of 
political sentiment which in the individual voter 
is often admired as evidence of independent 
thought, is stigmatized in those more prominent 
in politics as tergiversation and apostasy. 

It may be admitted tbat there are sound 
reasons for holding party leaders to a more 
rigid allegiance to party policy than is expected 
of the rank and file ; yet certainly at those 
periods when substantially new measures and 
new doctrines come to the front, the old party 
names lose whatever sacred ness may at other 
times be in them, and the political fellowships 
of the past may properly be reformed. Novel 
problems cannot always find old comrades still 
united in opinions. Precisely such was the case 
with John Quincy Adams and the Federalists. 
The earlier Federalist creed related to one set 
Q^^js^ues, the later Federalist creed to quite 
^nother set ; the earlier creed was sound and 
deserving of support ; the later creed was not 
BO. It is easy to see, as one looks backward 
upon history, that every great and successful 
party has its mission, that it wins its success 
through the substantial righteousness of that 
mission, and that it owes its downfall to as- 
Buming an erroneous attitude towards some 
lubsequent matter wnich becomes in turi;i of 



60 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

predominating importance. Sometimes, though 
rarely, a party remains on the right side through 
two or even more successive issues of profound 
consequence to the nation. The Federalist mis- 
sion was to establish the Constitution of the 
United States as a vigorous, efficient, and prac- 
tical system of government, to prove its sound- 
ness, safety, and efficacy, and to defend it from 
the undermining assaults of those who dis- 
trusted it and would have reduced it to imbe- 
cility. Supplementary and cognate to this was 
the further task of giving the young nation and 
the new system a chance to get fairly started in 
life before being subjected to the strain of war 
and European entanglements. To this end it 
was necessary to hold in check the Jeffersonian 
or French party, who sought to embroil us in 
a foreign quarrel. These two functions of the 
Federalist party were quite in accord ; they in 
volved the organizing and domestic instinct 
against the disorganizing and meddlesome ; the 
strengthening against the enfeebling process ; 
practical thinking against fanciful theories. For- 
tunately the able men had been generally of the 
sound persuasion, and by powerful exertions had 
carried the day and accomplished their allotted 
tasks so thoroughly that all subsequent genera* 
fcions of Americans have been reaping the ben- 
efit of their labors. But by the time that John 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 61 

Adams had concluded his administration the 
great Federalist work had been sufficiently done. 
Those who still believe that there is an over- 
ruling Providence in the affairs of men and na- 
tions, may well point to the history of this 
period in support of their tlieory. Republican- 
ism was not able to triumph till Federalism had 
fulfilled all its proper duty and was on the point 
of going wrong. 

During this earlier period John Quincy Adams 
had been a Federalist by conviction as well as 
by education. Nor was there any obvious reason 
for him to change his political faith with the 
change of party success, brought about as that 
was before its necessity was apparent but by 
the sure and inscrutable wisdom so marvellously 
inclosed in the great popular instinct. It was 
not patent, when Mr. Jefferson succeeded Mr. 
Adams, tliat Federalism was soon to become 
an unsound political creed — unsound, not be- 
cause it had been defeated, but because it had 
done its work, and in the new emergency was 
destined to blunder. During Mr. Jefferson's 
first administration no questions of novel im- 
port arose. But they were not far distant, and 
Boon were presented by the British aggres- 
sions. A grave crisis was created by this sys- 
tem of organized destruction of property and 
wholesale stealing of citizens, now suddenly 



52 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 

practised with such terrible energy. What waa 
to be done ? What had the two great parties 
to advise concerning the policy of the country 
in this hour of peril ? Unfortunately for the 
Federalists old predilections w^ere allowed now 
to govern their present action. Excusably An- 
glican in the by-gone days of Genet's mission, 
they now remained still Anglican, when to be 
Anglican was to be emphatically un-American. 
As one reads the history of 1807 and 1808 it is 
impossible not to feel almost a sense of personal 
gratitude to John Quincy Adams that he dared 
to step out from his meek-spirited party and 
do all that circumstances rendered possible to 
promote resistance to insults and wrongs intol- 
erable. In truth, he was always a man of high 
temper, and eminently a patriotic citizen of the 
United States. Unlike too many even of the 
best among his countrymen in those early years 
of the Republic, he had no foreign sympathies 
whatsoever ; he was neither French nor English, 
but wholly, exclusively, and warmly American. 
He had no second love ; the United States 
filled his public heart and monopolized his po- 
litical affections. When he was abroad he es- 
tablished neither affiliations nor antipathies, 
and when he was at home he drifted with no 
party whose course was governed by foreign 
magnets. It needs only that thl3 characteristic 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 63 

ihould be fully understood in order that his 
conduct in 1808 should be not alone vindicated 
but greatly admired. 

At that time it was said, and it lias been since 
repeated, that he was allured by the loaves and 
fishes which the Republicans could distribute, 
while the Federalists could cast to him only 
meagre and uncertain crusts. Circumstances 
gave to the accusation such a superficial plau- 
sibility that it was believed by many honest 
men under the influence of political preju- 
dice. But such a charge, alleged concerning 
a single act in a long public career, is to be 
scanned with suspicion. Disproof by demon- 
stration is impossible ; but it is fair to seek for 
the character of the act in a study of the char- 
acter of the actor, as illustrated by the rest of 
his career. Thus seeking we shall see that, if 
any traits can be surely predicated of any man, 
independence, courage, and honesty may be 
predicated of Mr. Adams. His long public life 
had many periods of trial, yet this is the sole 
occasion when it is so much as possible seri- 
ously to question the purity of his motives — 
I )r the story of his intrigue with Mr. Clay to 
Becure the Presidency was never really be- 
lieved by any one except General Jackson, and 
Ibe beliefs of General Jackson are of little con- 
i^quence. From the earliest "^o the latest day 



54 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

of his public life, he was never a party man. 
lie is entitled to the justification to be derived 
from this life-long habit, when, in 1807-8, he 
voted against the wishes of those who had 
hoped to hold him in the bonds of partisan 
alliance. In point of fact, so far from these 
acts being a yielding to selfish and calculating 
temptation, they called for great courage and 
strength of mind ; instead of being tergiversa- 
tion, they were a triumph in a severe ordeal. Mr. 
Adams was not so dull as to underrate, nor so 
void of good feeling as to be careless of, the storm 
of obloquy which he had to encounter, not only 
in such shape as is customary in like instances 
of a change of sides in politics, but, in his pres- 
ent case, of a peculiarly painful kind. He was 
to seem unfaithful, not only to a party, but to 
the bitter feud of a father whom he dearly loved 
and greatly respected ; he was to be reviled by 
the neighbors and friends who constituted his 
natural social circle in Boston ; he was to alien- 
ate himself from the rich, the cultivated, the 
influential gentlemen of his neighborhood, his 
comrades, who would almost universally con- 
demn his conduct. He was to lose his position 
as Senator, and probably to destroy all hopes of 
•^urther political success so far as it depended 
apon the good-will of the people of his own 
State. In this he was at least giving up a cer 



JOHN QUINCE ADAMS. 65 

tainty in exchange for what even his enemies 
must admit to have been only an expectation. 

But in fact it is now evident that there was 
not upon his part even an expectation. At the 
first siorns of the views which he was likelv to 
hold, that contemptible but influential Republi- 
can, Giles, of Virginia, also one or two others 
of the same party, sought to approach him with 
insinuating suggestions. But Mr. Adams met 
these advances in a manner frigid and repellent 
even beyond his wont, and far from seeking to 
conciliate these emissaries, and to make a bar- 
gain, or even establisli a tacit understanding for 
his own benefit, he held them far aloof, and sim- 
ply stated that he wished and expected nothing 
from the Administration. His mind was made 
up, his opinion was formed ; no bribe was needed 
to secure his vote. Not thus do men sell them- 
selves in politics. The Republicans were fairly 
notified that he was going to do just as he 
chose ; and Mr. Jefferson, the arch-enemy of 
all Adamses, had no occasion to forego his feud 
to win this recruit from that family. 

Mr. Adams's Diary shows unmistakably that 
he was acting rigidly upon principle, that he 
believed himself to be injuring or even destro}'- 
ing his political j^rospects, and that in so do- 
ing he taxed his moral courage severely. The 
whole tone of the Diary, apart from, those few 



i6 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

distinct statements which hostile critics might 
view with distrust, is despondent, often bitter, 
but defiant and stubborn. If in later life he 
ever anticipated the possible publication of these 
private pages, yet he could hardly have done 
BO at this early day. Among certain general 
reflections at the close of the year 1808, he 
writes : '' On most of the great national ques- 
tions now under discussion, my sense of duty 
leads me to support the Administration, and I 
find myself, of course, in opposition to the Fed- 
eralists in general. But I have no communica- 
tion with the President, other than that in the 
regular order of business in the Senate. In this 
state of things my situation calls in a peculiar 
manner for prudence ; my political prospects 
are declining, and, as my term of service draws 
near its close, I am constantly approaching to 
the certainty of being restored to the situation 
of a private citizen. For this event, however, 
I hope to have my mind sufiiciently prepared." 

In July, 1808, the Republicans of the Con- 
gressional District wished to send him to the 
House of Representatives, but to the gentle- 
man who waited upon him with this proposal 
he returned a decided negative. Other consid- 
erations apart, he would not interfere with the 
reelection of his friend, Mr. Quincy. 

Certain remarks, written when his senatoria 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 67 

Lerm was far advanced, when he had lost the 
confidence of the Federalists without obtaming 
that of the Republicans, may be of interest at 
this point. He wrote, October 30, 1807 : " I 
employed the whole evening in looking over 
the Journal of the Senate, since I have been 
one of its members. Of the very little business 
which I have commenced during the four ses- 
sions, at least three fourths has failed, with cir- 
cumstances of peculiar mortification. The very 
few instances in which I have succeeded, have 
been always after an opposition of great obsti- 
nacy, often ludicrously contrasting with the 
insignificance of the object in pursuit. More 
than one instance has occurred where the same 
thing which I have assiduously labored in vain 
to effect has been afterwards accomplished by 
others, witliout tlie least resistance ; more than 
once, where the pleasure of disappointing me 
has seemed to be the prominent principle of 
decision. Of the preparatory business, matured 
in committees, I have had a share, gradually in- 
creasing through the four sessions, but always 
as a subordinate member. The merely latori- 
ous duties have been readily assigned to me, and 
'<is readily undertaken and discharged. My suc- 
cess has been more frequent in opposition than 
in carrying any proposition of my own, and I 
hope I have been instrumental in arresting many 



58 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

unadvised purposes and projects. Though as 
fco the general policy of the country I have 
been uniformly in a small, aud constantly de- 
creasing minority; my opinions aud votes have 
been much oftener in unison with the Adminis- 
tration than with their opponents ; I have met 
vt^ith at least as much oppositiou from my party 
friends as from their adversaries, — I believe 
more. I know not that I have made any per- 
sonal enemies now in Senate, nor can I flat- 
ter myself with having acquired any personal 
friends. There have been hitherto two, Mr. 
Tracey and Mr. Plumer, upon whom I could 
rely, but it has pleased Providence to remove 
one by death, and the changes of political party 
have removed the other." This is a striking 
paragraph, certainly not written by a man in a 
very cheerful or sanguine frame of mind, not 
by one who congratulates himself on having 
skilfully taken the initial steps in a brilliant 
political career; but, it is fair to say, by one 
who has at least tried to do his duty, and who 
has not knowingly permitted himself to be 
warped either by passion, prejudice, party alli- 
ances, or selfish considerations. 

As early as November, 1805, Mr. Adams, 
being still what may be described as an in- 
dependent Federalist, was approached by Di 
Rush with tentative suggestions concerning * 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 69 

foreign mission. Mr. Madison, then Secretary 
of State, and even President Jefferson, were 
apparently not disinclined to give him such em- 
ployment, provided he would be willing tu ac- 
cept it at their hands. Mr. Adams simply re- 
plied, that he would not refuse a nomination 
merely because it came from Mr. Jefferson, 
though there was no office in the President's 
gift for which he had any wish. Perhaps be- 
cause of the unconciliatorv coolness of this re- 
Bponse, or perhaps for some better reason, the 
nomination did not folloAv at that time. No 
sooner, however, had Mr. Madison fairly taken 
the oath of office as President than he be- 
thought him of Mr. Adams, now no longer a 
Federalist, but, concerning the present issues, 
of the Republican persuasion. On March 6, 
1809, Mr. Adams Avas notified by the President 
personally of the intention to nominate him as 
Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. It was a 
jiew mission, the first minister ever nominated 
to Russia having been only a short time before 
rejected by the Senate. But the Emperor had 
often expressed his wish to exchange ministers, 
and Mr. Madison was anxious to comply with 
ihe courteous request. Mr. Adams's name was 
«,ccordingly at once sent to the Senate. But 
on the following day, Marcn 7, that body re- 
lolved that "it is inexoedient at this tinje to 



rO JOHN QUINCY A DAM a. 

appoint a minister from the United Slates to 
tlie Court of Russia." The vote was seven- 
teen to fifteen, and among the seventeen was 
Mr. Adams's old colleague, Timothy Picker- 
ing, who probably never in his life cast a vote 
which gave him so much pleasure. Mr. Mad- 
ison, however, did not readily desist from his 
purpose, and a few months later, June 26, he 
sent a message to the Senate, stating that the 
considerations previously leading him to nom- 
inate a minister to Russia had since been 
strengthened, and again naming Mr. Adams 
for the post. This time the nomination was 
confirmed with readiness, by a vote of nineteen 
to seven, Mr. Pickering, of course, being one 
of the still hostile minority. 

At noon on August 5, 1809, records Mr. 
Adams, " I left my house at the corner of Boyl- 
ston and Nassau streets, in Boston," again to 
make the tedious and uncomfortable voyage 
across the Atlantic. A miserable and a dan- 
gerous time he had of it ere, on October 23, he 
reached St. Petersburg. Concerning the four 
years and a half which he is now to spend in 
Russia very little need be said. His active du- 
ties were of the simplest character, amounting 
to little more than rendering occasional assist- 
ance to American shipmasters suffering beneatK 
lie severities so often illegally inflicted by the 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 71 

contesting powers of Europe. But apart frous 
the slender practical service to be done, the 
period must have been interesting and agree- 
able for him personally, for he was received and 
treated throughout his stay by the Emperor 
and his courtiers with distinguished kindness. 
The Emperor, who often met him walking, 
used to stop and chat with him, while Count 
Romanzotf, the minister of foreign affairs, was 
cordial beyond the ordinary civility of diplo- 
macy. The Diary records a series of court pre- 
sentations, balls, fetes, dinners, diplomatic and 
other, launches, displays of fireworks, birthday 
festivities, parades, baptisms, plays, state fu- 
nerals, illuminations, and Te Deums for victo- 
ries ; in short, every species of social gayety and 
public pageant. At all these Mr. Adams was 
always a bidden and apparently a welcome 
guest. It must be admitted, even by liis de- 
tractors, that he was an admirable representa- 
tive of the United States abroad. Having al- 
ready seen much of the distinguished society of 
European courts, but retaining a republican 
idmplicity, which was wholly genuine and a 
natural part of his character and therefore 
was never affected or offensive in its manifesta- 
tions, he really represented the best element in 
the politics and society of the United States. 
Winning respect for himself he won it also foi 



f2 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

the country which he represented. Thus he 
was able to render an indirect but essential 
Bervice in cementing the kindly feeling which 
the Russian Empire entertained for the Amer- 
ican Republic. Russia could then do us little 
good and almost no harm, yet the friendship 
of a great European power had a certain moral 
value in those days of our national infancy. 
That friendship, so cordially offered, Mr. Ad- 
ams was fortunately well fitted to conciliate, 
showing in his foreign callings a tact which did 
not mark him in other public relations. He was 
perhaps less liked by his travelling fellow coun- 
trymen than by the Russians. The paltry am- 
bition of a certain class of Americans for intro- 
duction to high society disgusted him greatly, 
and he was not found an efficient ally by these 
would-be comrades of the Russian aristocracy. 
" The ambition of young Americans to crowd 
themselves upon European courts and into the 
company of nobility is a very ridiculous and 
not a very proud feature of their character," he 
wrote ; " there is nothing, in my estimate of 
things, meaner than courting society where, if 
admitted, it is only to be despised." He him- 
self happily combined extensive acquirements 
3xcellent ability, diplomatic and courtly experi 
ence, and natural independence of character 
without ill-bred self-assertion, and never faileJ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 73 

Jo create a good impression in the many circles 
Into which his foreign career introduced him. 

The ambassadors and ministers from Euro- 
pean powers at St. Petersburg were constantly 
wrangling about precedence and like petty mat- 
ters of court etiquette. " In all these contro- 
versies," writes Mr. Adams, " I have endeavored 
to consider it as an affair in which I, as an 
American minister, had no concern ; and that 
my only principle is to dispute upon precedence 
with nobody." A good-natured contempt for 
European follies may be read between the lines 
of this remark ; wherein it may be said that 
the Monroe doctrine is applied to court eti- 
quette. 

He always made it a point to live within the 
Lieagre income which the United States allowed 
him, but seems to have suffered no diminution 
of consideration for this reason. One morning, 
walking on the Fontanka, he met the Emperor, 
who said : *' Mons. Adams, il y a cent ans que 
je ne vous ai vu ; " and then continuing the con- 
versation, " asked me whether I intended to 
take a house in the country this summer. I said, 
No. . . . 'And whv so?' said he. I was hes- 
itating upon an answer when he relieved me 
from embarrassment oy saying, ' Peutetre pont- 
es des considerations de finance ? ' As he said it 
mt\\ perfect good humor and with a smile, I 



74 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS, 

replied in the same manner : * Mais Sire, elles 
y sont pour une bonne part.' " ^ 

The volume of the journal which records this 
residence in St. Petersburg is very interesting 
as a picture of Russian life and manners in 
high society. Few travellers write anything 
nearly so vivid, so thorough, or so trustworthy 
as these entries. Moreover, during the whole 
period of his stay the great wars of Napoleon 
were constantly increasing the astonishment of 
mankind, and created intense excitement at the 
Court of Russia. These feelings waxed stronger 
as it grew daily more likely that the Emperor 
would have to take his turn also as a party de- 
fendant in the great conflict. Then at last 
came the fact of war, the invasion of Russia, 
the burning of Moscow, the disastrous retreat 
of the invaders ending in ignominious flight, 
the advance of the allies, finally the capture of 
Paris. All this while Mr. Adams at St. Peters- 
burg witnessed first the alarm and then the ex- 
ultation of the court and the people as the 
rumors now of defeat, anon of victory, were 
brought by the couriers at tantalizing intervals; 
Rnd he saw the rejoicings and illuminationa 
which rendered the Russian capital so brilliant 
and glorious during the last portion of his res- 

1 An interesting sketch of his household and its expense! 
• to be found in ii. Diary, 193. 



JOUN QUINCY ADAMS. 75 

idence. It was an experience well worth hav* 
ing, and which is pleasantly depicted in the 
Diary. 

In September, 1812, Count Romanzoff sug- 
gested to Mr. Adams the readiness of the Em- 
peror to act as mediator in bringmg about peace 
between the United States and England. The 
suggestion was promptly acted upon, but with 
no directly fortunate results. The American 
government acceded at once to the proposi 
tion, and at the risk of an impolitic display 
of readiness dispatched Messrs. Gallatin and 
Bayard to act as Commissioners jointly with Mr. 
Adams in the negotiations. These gentlemen, 
however, arrived in St. Petersburg only to find 
themselves in a very awkward position. Their 
official character might not properly be con- 
sidered as attaching unless England should ac- 
cept the offer of mediation. But England had 
refused, in the first instance, to do this, and she 
now again reiterated her refusal without regard 
for the manifestation of willingness on the 
Dart of the United States. Further, Mr. Gal- 
latin's nomination was rejected by the Senate 
after his departure, on the ground that his re- 
tention of the post of Secretary of the Treas- 
ury was incompatible, under the Constitution, 
ivith this diplomatic function. So the United 
States appeared in a very annoying attitude , 



76 JOHN QUINCY AD AM 8. 

her Commissioners were uncomfortable and 
somewhat humiliated ; Russia felt a certain 
measure of vexation at the brusque and positive 
rejection of her friendly proposition on the part 
of Great Britain ; and that country alone came 
out of the affair with any self-satisfaction. 

But by the time when all hopes of peace 
through the friendly offices of Russia were at 
an end, that stage of the conflict had been 
reached at which both parties, were quite ready 
to desist. The United States, though triumph- 
ing in some brilliant naval victories, had been 
having a sorry experience on land, where, as 
the Russian minister remarked, " England did 
as she pleased." A large portion of the people 
were extremely dissatisfied, and it was impos- 
sible to ignore that the outlook did not promise 
better fortunes in the future than had been en- 
countered in the past. On the other hand, 
England had nothing substantial to expect from 
a continuance of the struggle, except heavy ad- 
ditional expenditure which it was not then the 
fashion to compel the worsted party to recoup. 
She accordingly intimated her readiness to send 
Commissioners to Gottingen, for which place 
Ghent was afterwards substituted, to meet 
American Commissioners and settle terms ot 
" pacification. The United States renewed the 
v)owors of Messrs. Adams, Bayard, and Galla^ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 77 

tin, a new Secretary of the Treasury having in 
the mean time been appointed, and added Jon- 
athan Russell, then Minister to Sweden, and 
Henry Clay. England deputed Lord Gambier, 
an admiral, Dr. Adams, a publicist, and Mr. 
Goulbourn, a member of Parliament and Under 
Secretary of State. These eight gentlemen ac- 
cordingly met in Ghent on August 7, 1814. 

It was upwards of four months before an 
agreement was reached. During this period 
Mr. Adams kept his Diary with much more 
even than his wonted faithfulness, and it un- 
doubtedly presents the most vivid picture in 
existence of the labors of treaty-making diplo- 
matists. The eight were certainly an odd as- 
semblage of peacemakers. The ill-blood and 
wranglings between the opposing Commissions 
were bad enough, yet hardly equalled the in- 
testine dissensions between the American Com- 
missioners themselves. That the spirit of peace 
should ever have emanated from such an uni- 
versal embroilment, is almost sufficiently sur- 
prising to be regarded as a miracle. At the 
very beginning, or even before fairly beginning, 
the British party roused the jealous ire of the 
Americans by proposing that they all should 
meet, for exchanging their fall powers, at the 
lodgings of the Englishmen. The Americana 
Wok fire at this " offensive pretension to supe- 



78 JOHX QUIXCJ JJDAiJS. 

riority" which was "the usage from Ambassa- 
dors to Ministers of an inferior order." Mr. 
Adams cited Martens, and Mr. Bayard read 
a case from Ward's '* Law of Nations." Mr. 
Adams suggested sending a pointed reply, agree- 
incr to meet the British Commissioners '• at any 
place other than their own lodgings ; " but Mr. 
Gallatin, whose valuable function was destined 
to be the keeping of the peace among his frac- 
tious colleagues, as well as betwixt them and the 
Englishmen, substituted the milder phrase, '• at 
anv place which may be mutually agreed upon." 
The first meeting accordingly took place at the 
Hotel des Pays Bas, where it was arrancred that 
the subsequent conferences should be held al- 
ternately at the quarters of the two Commis- 
Bions. Then followed expressions, conyentional 
and proper but wholly untrue, of mutual sen- 
timents of esteem and good-will. 

No sooner did the gentlemen begin to get 
Beriouslv at the work before them, than the 
most discouraging prospects were developed. 
The British fii-st presented their demands, as 
follows: 1. That the United States should con- 
clude a peace with the Indian allies of Great 
Britain, and that a species of neutral belt of 
Indian territory should be established between 
the dominions of the United States and Great 
Britain, so that these dominions should be no 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 79 

wliere conterminous, npon which belt or bar- 
rier neither power should be permitted to en- 
croach even by purchase, and the boundaries of 
which should be settled in this treaty. 2. That 
the United States should keep no naval force 
upon the Great Lakes, and should neither main- 
tain their existing forts nor build new ones upon 
their northern frontier ; it was even required 
that the boundary line should run along the 
southern shore of the lakes ; while no corre- 
sponding restriction was imposed upon Great 
Britain, because she was stated to have no pro- 
jects of conquest as against her neighbor. 3. 
That a piece of the province of Maine should 
be ceded, in order to give the English a road 
from Halifax to Quebec. 4. That the stipula- 
tion of the treaty of 1783, conferring on Eng- 
lisli subjects the right of navigating the Mis- 
sissippi, should be now formally renewed. 

The Americans were astounded it seemed 
to them hardly worth while to have come so 
far to listen to such propositions. Concerning 
the proposed Indian pacification they had not 
even any powers, the United States being al- 
ready busied in negotiating a treaty with the 
tribes as independent powers. The establish- 
ment of the ne'itral Indian belt was manifestly 
contrary to the established policy and obvious 
destiny of the nation. Neither wa? the answer 



so JOHN UUINCY ADAMS. 

agreeable, which was returned by Dr. Adams 
to the inquiry as to what was to be done with 
those citizens of the United States who had 
already settled in those parts of Michigan, Il- 
linois, and Ohio, included within the territory 
which it was now proposed to make inalienably 
Indian. He said that these people, amounting 
perhaps to one hundred thousand, " must shift 
for themselves." The one-sided disarmament 
upon the hikes and along the frontier was, by 
the understanding of all nations, such an humil- 
iation as is inflicted only on a crushed adversary. 
No return was offered for the road between Hal- 
ifax and Quebec ; nor for the right of navigating 
the Mississippi. The treaty of peace of 1783, 
made in ignorance of the topography of the 
unexplored northern country, had established 
an impossible boundary line running from the 
Lake of the Woods westward along the forty- 
ninth parallel to the Mississippi; and as appurte- 
nant to the British territory, thus supposed to 
touch the river, a right of navigation upon it 
was given. It had since been discovered that 
a line on that parallel would never touch the 
Mississippi. The same treaty had also secured 
for the United States certain rights concerning 
the Northeastern fisheries. The English now 
insisted upon a re-affirmance of the privilege 
given to them, without a re-affirmance of thf 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 81 

privilege given to the United States ; ignoring 
the fact that the recent acquisition of Loui- 
siana, making the Mississippi wholly Ameri 
can, materially altered the propriety of a Brit 
ish right of navigation upon it. 

Apart from the intolerable character of these 
demands, the personal bearing of the English 
Commissioners did not tend to mitigate the 
chagrin of the Americans. The formal civil- 
ities had counted with the American Commis- 
Bioners for more tlian they were worth, and had 
induced them, in preparing a long dispatch to 
the home government, to insert "a paragraph 
complimentary to the personal deportment" of 
the British. But before they sent off the doc- 
ument they revised it and struck out these 
pleasant phrases. Not many days after the 
first conference Mr. Adams notes that the tone 
of the English Commissioners was even " more 
peremptory, and their language more over- 
bearing, than at the former conferences." A 
little farther on he remarks that " the Brit- 
ish note is overbearinsj; and insultinor in its 
tone, like the two former ones." Again he 
Bays : — 

" The tone of all t je British notes is arrofrant, 
overbearing, and offensive. The tone of ours is 
Aeither so bold nor so spin:ed as I think it should 
t>e. It is too much on the defensi'^e, and too exces- 



H2 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

f 
/ 

sive in the caution to say nothing irritating. I have 
Beldom been able to prevail upon my colleagues to 
insert anything in the style of retort upon the harsh 
and reproachful matter which we receive." 

Many little passages-at-arms in the confer- 
ences are recited which amply bear out these 
remarks as regards both parties. Perhaps, 
however, it should be admitted that the Amer- 
icans made up for the self-restraint which they 
practised in conference, by the disagreements 
and bickerings in which they indulged when 
consulting among themselves. Mr. Gallatin's 
serene temper and cool head were hardly taxed 
to keep the peace among his excited colleagues. 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were especially prone 
to suspicions and to outbursts of anger. Mr. 
Adams often and candidly admits as much of 
himself, apparently not without good reason. 
At first the onerous task of drafting the nu- 
merous documents which the Commission had 
to present devolved upon him, a labor for 
which he was well fitted in all respects save, 
perhaps, a tendency to prolixity. He did not, 
however, succeed in satisfying his comrades, 
and the criticisms to which they subjected his 
composition galled his self-esteem severely, so 
much so that ere long he altogether relin- 
quished this function, which was thereafte? 
performed chiefly by Mr. Gallatin. As early 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 83 

as August 21, Mr. Adams says, not without 
evident bitterness, that though they all were 
agreed on the general view of the subject, yet 
in his " exposition of it, one objects to the form, 
another to the substance, of almost every par- 
agraph." Mr. Gallatin would strike out every- 
thing possibly offensive to the Englishmen ; 
Mr. Clay would draw his pen through every 
figurative expression ; Mr. Russell, not content 
with agreeing to all the objections of both the 
others, would further amend the construction 
of every sentence ; and finally Mr. Bayard 
would insist upon writing all over again in his 
own languao^e. All this nettled Mr. Adams ex- 
ceedingly. On September 24 he again writes 
that it was agreed to adopt an article which he 
had drawn, "though with objections to almost 
every word " which he had used. " This," he 
says, ''is a severity with which I alone am 
treated in our discussions by all my colleagues, 
ymost everything written by any of the rest 
is rejected, or agreed to with very little criti- 
/sm, verbal or substantial. But every line 
that I write passes a gauntlet of objections by 
'/ / every one of my colleagues, v^hich finally is 
'"^ sues, for the most part, in the rejection of it 
all." He reflects, with a somewhat forced ait 
of self-discipline, that this must indicate some 
laultiness in his composition which he must try 



84 JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 

to correct ; but in fact it is sufficiently evident 
that he was seldom persuaded that his papers 
were improved. Amid all this we see in the 
Diary many exhibitions of vexation. One day 
he acknowledges, " I cannot always restrain the 
irritability of my temper ; " another day he in- 
formed his colleagues, '' with too much warmth, 
that they might be assured I was as determined 
as they were ; " again he reflects, " I, too, must 
not forget to keep a constant guard upon my 
temper, for the time is evidently approaching 
when it will be wanted." Mr. Gallatin alone 
seems not to have exasperated him ; Mr. Clay 
and he were constantly in discussion, and often 
pretty hotly. Instead of coming nearer to- 
gether, as time went on, these two fell farther 
apart. What Mr. Clay thought of Mr. Adams 
may probably be inferred from what we know 
that Mr. Adams thought of Mr. Clay. " Mr. 
Clay is losing his temper, and growing peevish 
and fractious," he writes, on October 31; and 
constantly he repeats the like complaint. The 
truth is, that the precise New Englander and 
the impetuous Westerner were kept asunder 
not only by local interests but by habits and 
modes of thought utterly dissimilar. Some 
amusing glimpses of their private life illustrate 
this difference. Mr. Adams worked hard ano 
diligently, allowing himself little leisure fo' 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 85 

pleasure ; but Mr. Clay, without actually neg- 
lecting his duties, yet managed to find ample 
time for enj(\yment. More than once Mr. Ad- 
ams notes tliiit, as he rose about five o'clock in 
the morning to light his own fire and begin 
the labors of the day by candle-light, he heard 
the parties breaking up and leaving Mr. Clay's 
rooms across the entry, where they had been 
playing cards all niglit long. In these little 
touches one sees the distinctive characters of 
the men well portrayed. 

The very extravagance of the British de- 
mands at least saved the Americans from per- 
plexity. Mr. Clay, indeed, cherished an " in- 
conceivable idea" that the Englishmen would 
" finish by receding from the groimd they had 
taken;" but meantime there could be no differ- 
ence of opinion concerning the impossibility of 
meeting them upon that ground. Mr. Adams, 
never lacking in courage, actually wished to 
argue with them that it would be for the in- 
terests of Great Britain not less than of the 
United States if Canada should be ceded to 
the latter power. Unfortunately his colleagues 
would not support nim in this audacious policy, 
the humor of which is delicious. It would have 
been infinitely droL to see how the B?'itish Com- 
missioners would have haixed such a proposition, 
by way of appropriate termination of a contiict 



86 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

in which the forces of their nation had cap- 
tured and ransacked the capital city of the 
Americans ! 

On August 21 the Englishmen invited the 
Americans to dinner on the following Saturday. 
'* The chance is," wrote Mr. Adams, " that be- 
fore that time the whole negotiation will be at 
an end." The banquet, however, did come off, 
and a few more succeeded it ; feasts not marked 
by any great geniality or warmth, except per- 
haps occasionally warmth of discussion. So sure 
were the Americans that they were about to 
break off the negotiations that Mr. Adams be- 
gan to consider by what route he should return 
to St. Petersburg ; and they declined to renew 
the tenvire of their quarters for more than a few 
days longer. Like alarms were of frequent oc- 
currence, even almost to the very day of agree- 
ment. On September 15, at a dinner given by 
the American Commissioners, Lord Gambiei 
asked Mr. Adams whether he would return im- 
mediately to St. Petersburg. '' Yes," replied 
Mr. Adams, " that is, if you send us away." 
His lordship " replied with assurances how 
deeply he lamented it, and with a hope that we 
should one day be friends again." On the same 
occasion Mr. Goulburn said that probably the 
last note of the Americans would " terminat« 
'he business," and that they " must fight it out.' 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 87 

Fighting it out was a much less painful prospect 
tor Great Britain just at that juncture than for 
the United States, as the Americans realized 
with profound anxiety. " We so fondly cling 
to the vain hope of peace, that every new proof 
of its impossibility operates upon us as a dis- 
appointment," wrote Mr. Adams. No amount 
of pride could altogether conceal the fact that 
the American Commissioners represented the 
worsted party, and though they never openly 
said so even among themselves, yet indirectly 
they were obliged to recognize the truth. On 
November 10 we find Mr. Adams proposing to 
make concessions not permitted by their instruc- 
tions, because, as he said ; — 

'' I felt so sure that [the home government] would 
now gladly take the state before the war as the gen- 
eral basis of the peace, that I was prepared to take 
on me the responsibility of trespassing upon their 
instructions thus far. Not only so, but I would at 
this moment cheerfully give my life for a peace on 
this basis. If peace was possible, it would be on no 
other. 1 had indeed no hope that the proposal would 
be accepted." 

Mr. Clay thought that the British would 
laugh at this : '' They would say. Ay, ay ! pretty 
^ellows you, to think of getting out of the war 
as well as you got into it." This was not con- 
soling for the representatives of that side which 



88 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

had declared war for the purpose of curing 
grievances and vindicating alleged rights. But 
that Mr. Adams correctly read the wishes of 
the government was proved within a very few 
days by the receipt of express authority from 
home '' to conclude the peace on the basis of the 
f<tatus ante helium^ Three days afterwards, on 
November 27, three and a half months after 
the vexatious haggling had been begun, we en- 
counter in the Diary the first real gleam of hope 
of a successful termination: "All the difficul- 
ties to the conclusion of a peace appear to be 
now so nearly removed, that my colleagues all 
consider it as certain. I myself think it prob- 
able." 

There were, however, some three weeks more 
of negotiation to be gone through before the 
consummation was actually achieved, and the 
ill blood seemed to increase as the end was ap- 
proached. The differences between the Amer- 
ican Commissioners waxed especially serious 
concerning the fisheries and the navigation of 
the Mississippi. Mr. Adams insisted that if the 
treaty of peace had been so far abrogated by 
the war as to render necessary a re-affirmance 
of the British right of navigating the Missis- 
sippi, then a re -affirmance of the American 
tights in the Northeastern fisheries was equally 
aecessary. This the English Commissioners de 



JOEN QUINCY ADAMS. 89 

nied. Mr. Adams said it was only an exchange 
of privileges presumably equivalent. i\Ir. Clay, 
however, was firmly resolved to prevent all stip- 
ulations admitting such a right of navigation, 
and the better to do so he was quite willing to 
let the fisheries go. The navigation privilege 
he considered " much too important to be con- 
ceded for the mere liberty of drying fish upon 
a desert," as he was pleased to describe a right 
for which the United States has often been 
ready to go to war and may yet some time do 
BO. " Mr. Clay lost his temper," writes Mr. 
Adams a day or two Liter, '' as he generally 
does whenever this right of the British to nav- 
igate the Mississippi is discussed. He was ut- 
terly averse to admitting it as an equivalent for 
a stipulation securing the contested part of the 
fisheries. He said the more he heard of this 
[the right of fishing], the more convinced he 
was that it was of little or no value. He should 
be glad to get it if he could, but he was sure 
the British would not ultimately grant it. That 
the navigation^ of the Mississippi, on the other 
hand, was an object of immense importance, 
and he could see no sort of reason for granting 
it as an equivalent for the fisheries." Thus 
spoke the representative of the West. The New 
Enfrhmder — the son of the man whose exertions 
had been chiefly instrumental in originally ob- 



90 JOHN QUINCY AD AMU. 

taining the grant of the Northeastern fishery 
privileges, — naturally went to the other ex- 
treme. He thought " the British right of nav 
ijxating the Mississippi to be as nothing, consid- 
ered as agrantfi-om us. It was secured to them 
by the peace of 1783, they had enjoyed it at the 
commencement of the war, it had never been 
injurious in the slightest degree to our own 
people, and it appeared to [him] that the Brit- 
ish claim to it was just and equitable." Further 
he " believed the right to this navigation to be 
a very useless thing to the British. . . . But 
their national pride and honor were interested 
in it ; the government could not make a peace 
which would abandon it." The fisheries, how- 
ever, Mr. Adams regarded as one of the most 
inestimable and inalienable of American rights. 
It is evident that the United States could ill 
have spared either Mr. Adams or Mr. Clay from 
the negotiation, and the joinder of the two, 
however fraught with discomfort to themselves, 
well served substantial American interests. 

Mr. Adams thought the British perfidious, 
and suspected them of not entertaining any 
honest intention of concluding a peace. On 
December 12, after an exceedingly quarrelsome 
conference, he records his belief that the British 
have " insidiously kept open " two points, " for 
the sake of finally breaking off the negotiations 



V, 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 91 

and making all tbeir otlier concessions proofs of 
their extreme moderation, to put upon us the 
blame of the rupture." 

On December 11 we find Mr. Clay ready 
" for a war three years longer," and anxious 
*'to begin to play at hrag'" with the English- 
men. His colleagues, more complaisant or hav- 
ing less confidence in their own skill in that 
game, found it difficult to placate him ; he 
" stalked to and fro across the chamber, repeat- 
ing five or six times, ' I will never sign a treaty 
upon the status ante helium with the Indian 
article. So help me God ! ' " The next day there 
was an angry controversy with the English- 
men. The British troops had taken and held 
Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, the right- 
ful ownership of wliich was in dispute. The title 
was to be settled by arbitrators. But the ques- 
tion, whether the British should restore posses- 
sion of the island pending the arbitration, 
aroused bitter discussion. " Mr. Goulburn and 
Dr. Adams (the Englishman) immediately took 
fire, and Goulburn lost all control of his temper. 
He has always in such cases," says the Diary, 
" a sort of convulsive agitation about him, and 
the tone in which he speaks is more insulting 
than the language which he uses." Mr. Bayard 
referred to the case of the Falkland Islands. 
" 'Why ' (In a transport A rage), said Goul- 



92 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

burn, ' in that case we sent a fleet and troops 
and drove the fellows off ; and that is what we 
ought to have done in this case.' " Mr. J. Q. 
Adams, whose extensive and accurate informa* 
tion more than once annoyed his adversaries, 
stated that, as he remembered it, "the Spaniards 
in that case had driven the British off," — and 
Lord Gambier helped his blundering colleague 
out of the difficulty by suggesting a new sub- 
ject, much as the defeated heroes of the Iliad 
used to find happy refuge from death in a 
god-sent cloud of dust. It is amusing to read 
that in the midst of such scenes as these the 
show of courtesy was still maintained ; and 
on December 13 the Americans " all dined with 
the British Plenipotentiaries," though " the 
party was more than usually dull, stiff, and re- 
served." It was certainly forcing the spirit of 
good fellowship. The next day Mr. Clay noti- 
fied his colleagues that they were going " to 
make a damned bad treaty, and he did not know 
whether he would sign it or not ; " and Mr. 
Adams also said that he saw that the rest had 
made up their minds " at last to yield the fish- 
ery point," in which case he also could not sign 
whe treaty. On the following day, however, the 
Amei'cans were surprised by receiving a note 
from the British Commissioners, wherein they 
Qiade the substantial concession of omitting 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 93 

from the treaty all reference to the fisheries and 
the navigation of the Mississippi. But Mr. 
Clay, on reading the note, "manifested some 
chagrin," and '' still talked of breaking off the 
negotiation," even asking Mr. Adams to join 
him in so doing, which request, however, Mr. 
Adams very reasonably refused. Mr. Clay had 
also been anxious to stand out for a distinct 
abandonment of the alleged right of impress- 
ment ; but upon this point he found none of his 
colleagues ready to back him, and he was com- 
pelled perforce to yield. Agreement was there- 
fore now substantially reached; a few minor 
matters were settled, and on December 24, 1814, 
the treaty was signed by all the eight nego- 
tiators. 

It was an astonishing as well as a happy 
result. Never, probably, in the history of di- 
plomacy has concord been produced from such 
discordant elements as had been brought to- 
gether in Ghent. Dissension seemed to have 
become the mother of amity ; and antipathies 
were mere preliminaries to a good understand- 
ing; in diplomacy as in marriage it had worked 
well to begin with a little aversion. But, in 
truth, this consummation was largely due to 
what had been going on in the English Cab- 
met. At the outset Lord Casfiereagh had been 
very unwilling to conclude peace, and his dis 



94 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

position had found expression in the original 
intolerable terms prepared by the British Com 
missioners. But Lord Liverpool had been 
equally solicitous on the other side, and was 
said even to have tendered his resignation to 
the Prince Regent, if an accommodation should 
not be effected. His endeavors were fortunately 
aided by events in Europe. Pending the nego- 
tiations Lord Castlereagh went on a diplomatic 
errand to Vienna, and there fell into such threat- 
ening discussions with the Emperor of Russia 
and the King of Prussia, that he thought it 
prudent to have done with the American war, 
and wrote home pacific advices. Hence, at last, 
came such concessions as satisfied the Amer- 
icans. 

The treaty established " a firm and universal 
peace between his Britannic Majesty and the 
United States." Each party was to restore all 
captured territory, except that the islands of 
which the title was in dispute were to remain 
in the occupation of the party holding them at 
the time of ratification until that title should be 
settled by commissioners ; provision was made 
also for the determination of all the open ques- 
tions of boundary by sundry boards of commis- 
Bioners ; each party was to make peace with 
the Indian allies of the other. Such were, in 
substance, the only points touched upon by thii 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 95 

document. Of the many subjects mootea be- 
tween the negotiators scarcely any had sur- 
vived the fierce contests which had been waged 
concerning them. The whole matter of the 
navigation of the Mississippi, access to that 
river, and a road through American territory, 
had been dropped by the British ; while the 
Americans had been well content to say noth- 
ing of the Northeastern fisheries, which they re- 
garded as still their own. The disarmament 
on the lakes and along the Canadian border, 
and the neutralization of a strip of Indian 
territory, were yielded by the English. The 
Americans were content to have nothing said 
about impressment ; nor was any one of the 
many illegal rights exercised by England for- 
mally abandoned. The Americans satisfied 
themselves with the reflection that circum- 
stances had rendered these points now only mat- 
ters of abstract principle, since the pacification 
of Europe had removed all opportunities and 
temptations for England to persist in her pre- 
vious objectionable courses. For the future it 
was hardly to be feared that she would again 
undertake to pursue a policy against which 
it was evident that the United States were will- 
mg to conduct a serious war. There was, how- 
ever, no provision for indemnification. 

Upon a fair consideration, it must be ad* 



96 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

mitted that, though the treaty was silent upon 
all the points which the United States had 
made war for the purpose of enforcing, yet the 
country had every reason to be gratified with 
the result of the negotiation. The five Com- 
missioners had done themselves ample credit. 
They had succeeded in agreeing with each 
other ; they had avoided any fracture of a ne- 
gotiation which, up to the very end, seemed 
almost daily on the verge of being broken off 
in anger; they had managed really to lose noth- 
ing, in spite of the fact that their side had had 
decidedly the worst of the struggle. They had 
negotiated much more successfully than the 
armies of their countrymen had fought. The 
Marquis of Wellesley said, in the House of 
Lords, that " in his opinion the American 
Commissioners had shown a most astonishing 
superiority over the British during the whole 
of the correspondence." One cannot help wish- 
ing that the battle of New Orleans had taken 
place a little earlier, or that the negotiation 
had fallen a little later, so that news of that 
brilliant event could have reached the ears of 
the insolent Englishmen at Ghent, who had 
for three months been enjoying the malicious 
pleasure of lending to the Americans English 
newspapers containing accounts of American 
misfortunes. But that fortunate battle was no* 



JOBN QUINCY ADAMS. 97 

fought until a few days after the eight Coiiimis- 
liouers had signed their coaipact. It is an in- 
teresting illustration of the slowness of commu- 
nication which our forefatliers had to endure, 
that tlie treaty crossed the Atlantic in a sail- 
ing ship in time to travel through much of the 
country simultaneously w^ith the report of this 
farewell victory. Two such good pieces of 
news coming together set the people wild with 
delight. Even on the dry pages of Niles's 
Weekly Register occurs the triumphant para- 
graph : " Who would not be an American ? 
Long live the Republic ! All hail ! last asylum 
of oppressed humanity ! Peace is signed in the 
arms of victory ! " It was natural that most 
of the ecstasy should be manifested concerning 
the military triumph, and that the mass of the 
people should find more pleasure in glorifying 
General Jackson than in exalting the Commis- 
sioners. The value of their work, however, was 
well proved by the voice of Great Britain. In 
"he London Times of December 80 appeared 
II most angry tirade against the treaty, with 
bitter sneers at those who called the peace an 
'Uionorable " one. England, it was said, "had 
attempted to force her principles on America, 
and had failea." Foreign powers would sav 
that the English '' had retired from the combat 
with the stripes yet bleeding on their backs, 



98 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

— with the recent defeats at Plattsburgh and 
on Lake Champlain unavenged." The most 
gloomy prognostications of further wars with 
America when her naval power sliould have 
;vaxed much greater were indulged. The loss 
of prestige in Europe, " the probable loss of our 
trans-Atlantic provinces," were among the re- 
sults to be anticipated from this treaty into 
which the English Commissioners had been be- 
guiled by the Americans. These latter were re- 
viled with an abuse which was really the high- 
est compliment. The family name of Mr. 
Adams gained no small access of distinction in 
England from this business. 

After the conclusion of the treaty Mr. Adams 
went to Paris, and remained there until the mid- 
dle of May, 1815, thus having the good fortune 
to witness the return of Napoleon and a great 
part of the events of the famous "hundred days.'' 
On May 26 he arrived in London, where there 
awaited him, in the hands of the Barings, his 
commission as Envoy Extraordinary and Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. His first 
duty was, in connection with Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Gallatin, to negotiate a treaty of commerce, in 
which business he again met the same three 
British Commissioners by whom the negotia 
tions at Ghent had been conducted, of whose 
abilitifs the government appeared to entertain 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 99 

H better opinion than the Marquis of Welles- 
ley had expressed. This negotiation had been 
brought so far towards conclusion by his col- 
leagues before his own arrival that Mr. Adams 
had little to do in assisting them to complete it. 
This little having been done, they departed and 
left him as Minister at the Court of St. James's. 
Thus he fulfilled Washington's prophecy, by 
reaching the highest rank in the American dip- 
lomatic service. 

Of his stay in Great Britain little need be 
said. He had few duties of importance to per- 
form. The fisheries, the right of impressment, 
and the taking away and selling of slaves by 
British naval officers during the late wai, 
formed the subjects of many interviews be- 
tween him and Lord Castlereagh, without, how- 
ever, any definite results being reached. But 
he succeeded in obtaining, towards the close of 
his stay, some slight remission of the severe re- 
strictions placed by England upon our trade 
with her West Indian colonies. His relations 
with a cabinet, in which the principles of 
Castlereagh and Canning predominated, could 
hardly be cordial, yet he seems to have been 
treated with perfect civility. Indeed, he was 
not a man whom it was easy even for an Eng- 
lishman to insult. He leniarks of Castlerea-gh, 
ifter one of his first interviews with that noble- 



100 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

man : " His deportment is sufficiently grace- 
ful, and his person is handsome. His manner 
was cold, but not absolutely repulsive." Be« 
fore he left he had the pleasure of having Mr. 
Canning specially seek acquaintance with him. 
He met, of course, many distinguished and 
many agreeable persons during his residence, 
and partook of many festivities, especially of 
numerous civic banquets at which toasts were 
formally given in the dullest English fashion 
and he was obliged to display his capacity for 
'* table-cloth oratory," as he called it, more 
than was agreeable to him. He was greatly 
bored by these solemn and pompous feedings. 
Partly in order to escape them he took a house 
at Ealing, and lived there during the greater 
part of his stay in England. '* One of the 
strongest reasons for my remaining out of 
town," he writes, "is to escape the frequency 
of invitations at late hours, which consume so 
much precious time, and with the perpetually 
mortifying consciousness of inability to return 
the civility in the same manner." The repub- 
Vtcan simplicity, not to say poverty, forced upon 
American representatives abroad, was a very 
different matter in the censorious and un 
Iriendly society of London from what it had 
iicen at the kindly disposed Court of St. Peters 
^>irg. The relationship between the mothei 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 101 

country and the quondam colonies, especially 
at that juncture, was such as to render social 
life intolerably trying to an under-paid Ameri- 
can minister. 

Mr. Adams remained in England until June 
15, 1817, when he sailed from Cowes, closing 
forever his long and honorable diplomatic ca- 
reer, and bidding his last farewell to Europe. 
He returned home to take the post of Secretary 
of State in the cabinet of James Monroe, then 
lately inaugurated as President of the United 
States. 



CHAPTER II. 

•• SECRETARY OF STATE AND PRESIDENT. 

From the capitals of Russia and Great Biit- 
lin to the capital of the United States was 
a striking change. Washington, in its early 
struggle for existence, was so unattractive a 
spot, that foreigners must have been at a loss 
to discover the principle which had governed 
the selection. It combined all the ugliness with 
all the discomfort of an unprosperous frontier 
settlement on an ill- chosen site. What must 
European diplomats have thought of a capital 
city where snakes two feet long invaded gen- 
tlemen's drawing-rooms, and a carriage, bring- 
ing home the guests from a ball, could be upset 
by the impenetrable depth of quagmire at the 
very door of a foreign minister's residence. A 
description of the city given by Mr. Mills, a 
Representative from Massachusetts, in 1815, ia 
pathetic in its unutterable horror : — 

" It is impossible," he writes, " for me to describe 
to you my feelings on entering this miserable desert, 
-his scene of desolation and horror. . . . My antic* 
oations were almost infinitely short of the reality, an</ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 103 

i can truly say that the first appearance of this seat 
of the national government has produced in me noth- 
ing but absolute loathing and disgust." 

If the place wore such a dreadful aspect to 
the simple denizen of a New England country 
town, what must it have seemed to those who 
were familiar with London and Paris? To 
them the social life must have been scarcely 
less dreary than the rest of the surroundings. 
Accordingly, with this change of scene, the 
Diary, so long a record of festivities some- 
times dull and formal, but generally collecting 
interesting and distinguished persons, ceases 
almost wholly to refer to topics of society. 
Yet, of course, even the foul streets could not 
prevent people from occasionally meeting to- 
gether. There were simple tea-drinkings, stu- 
pid weekly dinners at the President's, infre- 
quent receptions by Mrs. Monroe, card-parties 
and conversation-parties, which at the British 
minister's were very '' elegant," and at the 
French minister's were more gay. Mons. de 
Neuville, at his dinners, used to puzzle and 
astound the plain-living Yankees by serving 
dishes of " turkeys without bones, and pud- 
dings in the form of fowls, fresh cod disguised 
like a salad, and celery like oysters ; " further, 
he scandalized some and demoralized others by 
Tiaving dancing on Saturday evenings, which 



104 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

fche New England ladles had been " educated to 
consider as holy time." Mi*, and Mrs. Adams 
used to give weekly parties on Tuesday even- 
ings, and apparently many persons stood not a 
little in awe of these entertainments and of 
the givers of them, by reason of their superior 
familiarity with the manners and customs of 
fche best society of Europe. Mrs. Adams was, 
" on the whole, a very pleasant and agreeable 
woman ; but the Secretary [had] no talent to 
entertain a mixed company, either by conver- 
sation or manners; " thus writes this same Mr. 
Mills, whose sentiments towards Mr. Adams 
were those of respect rather than of personal 
liking. The favorite dissipation then consisted 
in card-playing, and the stakes were too often 
out of all just proportion to the assets of the 
gamesters. At one time Mr. Clay was reputed 
to have lost f 8,000, an amount so considerable 
for him as to weigh upon his mind to the man- 
ifest detriment of his public functions. But 
sometimes the gentlemen resident in the capital 
met for purposes less innocent than Saturday 
evening cotillons, or even than extravagant bet- 
ting at the card-table, and stirred the dullness 
of society by a duel. Mr. Adams tells of one 
affair of this sort, fought between ex-Senator 
Mason, of Virginia, and his cousin, wherein the 
weapons used were muskets, and the distance* 



JOHN QUIACT ADAMS. lOa 

was only six paces. Mason was killed ; his 
cousin was wounded, and only by a lucky ac- 
cident escaped with his life. Mr. Adams had 
little time and less taste for either the amuse- 
ments or the dangers thus offered to him ; he 
preferred to go to bed in good season, to get up 
often long before daybreak, and to labor assid- 
uously the livelong day. His favorite exercise 
was swimming in the Potomac, where he ac- 
complished feats which would have been ex- 
traordinary for a young and athletic man. 

The most important, perplexing, and time- 
consuming duties then called for by the condi- 
tion of public affairs, happened to fall within 
Mr. Adams's department. Monroe's adminis- 
tration has been christened the "era of good 
feeling;" and, so far as political divisions 
among the people at large were concerned, this 
description is correct enough. There were no 
great questions of public policy dividing the 
nation. There could hardly be said to be two 
political parties. With the close of the war 
the malcontent Federalists had lost the only 
substantial principle upon which they had been 
able vigorously to oppose the Administration, 
and as a natural consequence the party rapidly 
shrank to insignificant proportions, and became 
f>i hardly more importance than were the Jac« 
•bites in England after their last hopes had 



106 JOHN QuINCY ADAMS, 

been quenched by the failure of the Rebellion 
of '45. The Federalist faith, like Jacobitism, 
lingered in a few neighborhoods, and was main- 
tained by a few old families, who managed to 
associate it with a sense of their own pride and 
lignity; but as an effective opposition or in- 
fluential party organization, it was effete, and 
no successor was rising out of its ruins. In a 
broad way, therefore, there was political har- 
mony to a very remarkable degree. 

But among individuals there was by no 
means a prevailing good feeling. Not held to- 
gether by the pressure exerted by the antago- 
nism of a strong hostile force, the prominent 
men of the Cabinet and in Congress were 
busily employed in promoting their own indi- 
vidual interests. Having no gi-eat issues with 
which to identify themselves, and upon which 
they could openly and honorably contend for 
the approval of the nation, their only means 
for securing their respective private ends lay 
in secretly overreaching and supplanting each 
other. Infinite skill was exerted by each to 
inveigle his rival into an unpopular position or 
a compromising light. By a series of prece- 
dents Mr. Adams, as Secretary of State, ap- 
peared most prominent as a candidate for the 
succession to the Presidency. But Mr. Craw- 
lord, in the Treasury Department, had beer 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 107 

very near obtaining the nomination instead of 
Monroe, and he was firmly resolved to secure 
it so soon as Mr. Monroe's eight years should 
have elapsed. He, therefore, finding much 
leisure left upon his hands by the not very 
exacting: business of his office, devoted his in- 
genuity to devising schemes for injuring the 
prestige of Mr. Adams. Mr. Clay also had 
been greatly disappointed that he had not been 
summoned to be Secretary of State, and so 
made heir apparent. His personal enmity was 
naturally towards Mr. Monroe, his political 
enmity necessarily also included Mr. Adams, 
whose appointment he had privately sought to 
prevent. He therefore at once set himself as- 
siduously to oppose and thwart the Administra- 
tion, and to make it unsuccessful and unpopu- 
lar. That Clay was in the main and upon all 
weighty questions an honest statesman and a 
real patriot must be admitted, but just at this 
period no national crisis called his nobler qual- 
ities into action, and his course was largely in- 
fluenced by selfish considerations. It was not 
long before Mr. Calhoun also entered the lists, 
though in a manner less discreditable to him- 
self, personally, than were the resources of 
Crawford and Clay. The daily narrations and 
3omments of Mr. Adams display and explain 
m a manner highly instructive, if not altogether 



108 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

agreeable, the ambitions and the manoeuvres, 
the hollow alliances and unworthy intrigues, 
not only of these three, but also of many other 
estimable gentlemen then in political life. The 
difference between those days and our own 
seems not so great as the laudatores temporu 
acti are wont to proclaim it. The elaborate 
machinery which has since been constructed 
was then unknown ; rivals relied chiefly upon 
their own astuteness and the aid of a few per- 
sonal friends and adherents for carrying on con- 
tests and attaining ends which are now sought 
by vastly more complex methods. What the 
stage-coach of that period was to the railroads 
of to-day, or what the hand-loom was to our 
great cotton mills, such also was the political 
intriguing of cabinet ministers, senators, and 
representatives, to our present party ma- 
chinery, liut the temper was no better, honor 
was no keener, the sense of public duty was 
little more disinterested then than now. One 
finds no serious traces of vulgar financial dis- 
honesty recorded in these pages, in which Mr. 
Adams has handed down the political life of 
the second and third decades of our century 
with a photographic accuracy. But one does 
not see a much higher level of faithfulness to 
ideal standards in political life than now exists. 
As has been said, it so happened that in Mr 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 109 

Monroe's administration the heaviest burden of 
labor and responsibility rested upon Mr. Adams; 
the most important and most perplexing ques- 
tions fell within his department. Domestic 
breaches had been healed, but foreign breaches 
gaped with threatening jaws. War with Spain 
seemed imminent. Her South American col- 
onies were then waging their contest for inde- 
pendence, and naturally looked to the late suc- 
cessful rebels of the northern continent for acts 
of neighborly sympathy and good fellowship. 
Their efforts to obtain official recognition and 
the exchange of ministers with the United 
States were eager and persistent. Privateers 
fitted out at Baltimore gave the State Depart- 
ment scarcely less cause for anxiety than the 
shipbuilders of Liverpool gave to the English 
Cabinet in 1863-64. These perplexities, as is 
well known, caused the passage of the first 
" Neutralitv Act," w^iich first formulated and 
has since served to establish the principle of 
international obligation in such matters, and 
has been the basis of all subsequent legislation 
upon the subject not only in this country but 
also in Great Britain. 

The European powers, impelled by a natural 
flistaste for rebellion by coionists. and also be- 
lieving that Spain would in time prevail over 
<he insurgents, turned a deaf ear to South Araer- 



110 JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. 

lean agents. But in the United States it waa 
different. Here it was anticipated that the re- 
volted communities were destined to win ; Mr. 
Adams records this as his own opinion ; besides 
which there was also a natural sympathy felt 
by our people in such a conflict in their own 
quarter of the globe. Nevertheless, in many 
anxious cabinet discussions, the President and 
the Secretary of State established the policy of 
reserve and caution. Rebels against an estab- 
lished government are like plaintiffs in litiga- 
tion; the burden of proof is upon them, and 
the neutral nations who are a sort of quasi- 
jurors must not commit themselves to a deci- 
sion prematurely. The gi-ave and inevitable 
difficulties besetting the Administration in this 
matter were seriously enhanced by the conduct 
of Mr. Clay. Seeking nothing so eagerly as an 
opportunity to harass the government, he could 
have found none more to his taste than this 
question of South American recognition. His 
enthusiastic and rhetorical temperament re- 
joiced in such a topic for his luxuriant oratory, 
and he lauded freedom and abased the Admin- 
istration with a force of expression far from 
gratifying to the responsible heads of govern- 
ment in their troublesome task. 

Apart from these matters the United States 
bad direct disputes of a threatening charactei 



JOUN QUINC7 ADAMS. Ill 

pending with Spain concerning the boundariea 
of Louisiana. Naturally enough boundary lines 
in the half explored wilderness of this vast con- 
tinent were not then marked with that indis- 
putable accuracy which many generations and 
much bloodshed had achieved in Europe ; and 
of all uncertain boundaries that of Louisiana 
was the most so. Area enough to make two or 
three States, more or less, might or might not 
be included therein. Such doubts had proved 
a ready source of quarrel, which could hardly 
be assuaged by General Jackson marching 
about in unquestionable Spanish territory, seiz- 
ing towns and hanging people after his lawless, 
ignorant, energetic fashion. Mr. Adams's chief 
labor, therefore, was by no means of a promis- 
ing character, being nothing less difficult than 
to conclude a treaty between enraged Spain and 
the rapacious United States, where there was so 
much wrong and so much right on both sides, 
and such a wide obscure realm of doubt between 
the two that an amicable agreement might well 
seem not onlj beyond expectation but beyond 
hope 

Many and various also were the incidental 
\.tbstacle3 in Mr. Adams's way. Not the least 
lay in the ability of Don Onis, the Spanish 
Minister, an ambassador well selected for his 
important task and whom the America^i tbns 
de'icribed : — 



112 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

" Cold, 'calculating, wily, always commanding hi» 
own temper, proud because he is a Spaniard, but sup- 
ple and cunning, accommodating the tone of his pre- 
tensions precisely to the degree of endurance of his 
opponent, bold and overbearing to the utmost extent 
to which it is tolerated, careless of what he asserts 
or how grossly it is proved to be unfounded, his 
morality appears to be that of the Jesuits as exposed 
by Pascal. He is laborious, vigilant, and ever at- 
tentive to his duties ; a man of business and of the 
world." 

Fortunately this so dangerous negotiator was 
hardly less anxious than Mr. Adams to conclude 
a treaty. Yet he, too, had his grave difficulties 
to encounter. Spanish arrogance had not de- 
clmed with the declina of Spanish strength, 
and the concessions demanded from that ancient 
monarchy by the upstart republic seemed at 
once exasperating and humiliating. The career 
of Jackson in Florida, while it exposed the 
weakness of Spain, also sorely wounded her 
pride. Nor could the grandees, three thousand 
miles away, form so accurate an opinion of the 
true condition and prospects of affairs as could 
Don Onis upon this side of the water. One day, 
begging Mr. Adams to meet him upon a ques- 
tion of boundary, "he insisted much upon the 
uifinite pains he had taken to prevail upon lua 
government to come to terms of accommoda 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 113 

tion," and pathetically declared that " the 
King's Council was composed of such ignorant 
and stupid nigauds, grandees of Spain, and 
priests," that Mr. Adams "could have no con- 
ception of their obstinacy and imbecility." 

Other difficulties in Mr. Adams's way were 
Buch as ought not to have been encountered. 
The only substantial concession which he was 
willing to make was in accepting the Sabine in- 
stead of the Rio del Norte as the southwestern 
boundary of Louisiana. But no sooner did 
rumors of this possible yielding get abroad 
than he was notified that Mr. Clay " would 
take ground against " any treaty embodying it. 
From Mr. Crawford a more dangerous and in- 
sidious policy was to be feared. Presumably he 
would be well pleased either to see Mr. Adams 
fail altogether in the negotiation, or to see him 
conclude a treaty which would be in some es- 
sential feature odious to the people. 

"That all his conduct," wrote Mr. Adams, "is 
governed by his views to the Presidency, as the ulti- 
mate successor to Mr. Monroe, and that his hopes 
depend upon a result unfavorable to the success or 
at least to the popularity of the Administration, Is 
perfectly clear. . . . His talent is .ntrigue. And as 
it is in the foreign affairs that the success or failure 
of the Administration will be most conspicuous, and 
as their success would promote the reputation and iu- 
8 



114 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

fluence, and their failure would lead to the disgrace 
of the Secretary of State, Crawford's personal views 
centre in the ill-success of the Administration in its 
foreign relations ; and, perhaps unconscious of his 
own motives, he will always be impelled to throw 
obstacles in its way, and to bring upon the Depart- 
ment of State especially any feeling of public dissat- 
isfaction that he can, . . . and although himself a 
member of the Administration, he perceives every 
day more clearly that his only prospect of success 
hereafter depends upon the failure of the Administra- 
tion by measures of which he must take care to 
make known his disapprobation.'* 

President Monroe was profoundly anxious for 
the consummation of the treaty, and though for 
a time he was in perfect accord with Mr. Adams, 
yet as the Spanish minister gradually drew 
nearer and nearer to a full compliance with the 
American demands, Monroe began to fear that 
the Secretary would carry his unyielding habit 
too far, and by insistance upon extreme points 
which might well enough be given up, would 
allow the country to drift into war. 

Fortunately, as it turned out, Mr. Adams was 
not afraid to take the whole responsibility of 
Buccess or failure upon his own shoulders, show- 
ing indeed a high and admirable courage and 
constancy amid such grave perplexities, in which 
'.t seemed that all his future political fortunes 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 115 

frere involved. He caused the proffered niedia- 
kion of Great Britain to be rejected. He availed 
himself of no aid save only the services of 
Mons. de Neuville, the French minister, who 
took a warm interest in the negotiation, ex- 
postulated and argued constantly with Don 
Onis and sometimes with Mr. Adams, served as 
a channel of communication and carried mes- 
Bages, propositions, and denials, which could 
better come filtered through a neutral go-be- 
tween than pass direct from principal to prin- 
cipal. In fact, Mr. Adams needed no other kind 
of aid except just this which was so readily 
furnished by the civil and obliging Frenchman. 
As if he had been a mathematician solving a 
problem in dynamics, he seemed to have mea* 
ured the precise line to which the severe pres 
sure of Spanish difficulties would compel Don 
Onis to advance. This line he drew sharply, 
and taking his stand upon it in the beginning 
he made no important alterations in it to the 
end. Day by day the Spaniard would rehic- 
tantly approach toward him at one ])oint or an- 
other, solemnly protesting that he could not 
make another move, by argument and entj-eaty 
urging, almost imploring Mr. Adams in turn to 
advance and meet him. But Mr. Adams stood 
rigidly still, sometimes not a little vexed by the 
other's lingering manoeuvres, and actually once 



116 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Baying to the courtly Spaniard that he " was 
BO weai'ied out with the discussion that it had 
become nauseous ; "' and, again, that he "really 
could discuss no longer, and had given it up in 
despair." Yet all the while he was nevel* wholly 
free from anxiety concerning the accuracy of 
his calculations as to how soon the Don might 
on his side also come to a final stand. Many a 
tedious and alarming pause there was, but after 
each halt progress was in time renewed. At 
last the consummation was reached, and except 
in the aforementioned matter of the Sabine 
boundary no concession even in details had been 
made by Mr. Adams. The United States was 
to receive Florida, and in return only agreed to 
settle the disputed claims of certain of her cit- 
izens against Spain to an amount not to exceed 
five million dollars ; while the claims of Spanish 
■subjects against the United States were wholly 
expunged. The western boundary was so es- 
tablished as to secure for this country the much- 
coveted outlet to the shores of the '^ South Sea," 
as the Pacific Ocean was called, south of the 
Columbia River ; the line also was run along the 
southern banks of the Red and Arkansas rivers, 
leaving all the islands to the United States and 
precluding Spain from the right of navigation 
Mr. Adams had achieved a great triumph. 
On February 22, 1819, the two negotiator! 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 117 

ligned and sealed tlie counterparts of tlie treaty. 
Mr. Adams notes tliat it is " perhaps tlie most 
Important day of my life," and justly called it 
" a great epoch in our history." Yet on the next 
day the Washington City Gazette came out 
with a strong condemnation of the Sabine con- 
cession, and expressed the hope that the Senate 
would not agree to it. '' This paragraph," said 
Mr. Adams, " comes directly or indirectly from 
Mr. Clay." But the paragraph did no harm, 
for on the following day the treaty was con- 
firmed by an unanimous vote of the Senate. 

It was not long, however, before the pleasure 
justly derivable frooi ths completion of this 
great labor was cruelly dashed. It appeared 
that certain enormous grants of land, made by 
the Spanish king to three of his nobles, and 
which were supposed to be annulled by the 
treat}'-, so that the territory covered by them 
would become the public property of the United 
States, bore date earlier than had been under- 
istood, and for this reason would, by the terms 
of the treaty, be left in full force. This was a 
serious matter, and such steps as were still pos- 
sible to set it right wer*^ promptl}^ taken. Mr. 
Adams appealed to Don Onis to state in writing 
that he himself had understood that these grants 
were to be annulled, and "^iiat such had been the 
uitention of the treaty The Spaniard replied 



118 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

in a shape imperfectly satisfactory. He shuf- 
fled, evaded, and laid himself open to suspicion 
of unfair dealing, though the charge could not 
be regarded as fully proved against him. Mr. 
Adams, while blaming himself for carelessness 
in not having more closely examined original 
documents, yet felt " scarce a doubt " that 
Onis "did intend by artifice to cover the grants 
while we were under the undoubting impres- 
sion they were annulled; " and he said to M. de 
Neuville, concerning this dark transaction, that 
" it was not the ingenious device of a public 
minister, but ^ une fourherie de ScapinJ' "" Be- 
fore long the rumor got abroad in the public 
prints in the natural shape of a ''malignant 
distortion," and Mr. Adams was compelled to 
see with chagrin his supposed brilliant success 
threatening to turn actually to his grave dis- 
credit by reason of this unfortunate oversight. 

What might have been the result had the 
treaty been ratified by Spain can only be sur- 
mised. But it so befell — happily enough for 
the United States and for Mr. Adams, as it aft- 
erwards turned out — that the Spanish govern- 
.aent refused to ratify. The news was, how- 
ever, that they would forthwith dispatch a new 
minister to explain this refusal and to renew 
negotiations. 

For liis own private part Mr. Adams strove 



JOHN aUlNCY ADAMS. 119 

bo endure this buffet of unkindly fortune with 
that unflinching and stubborn temper, slightly 
dashed with bitterness, which stood him in good 
stead in many a political trial during his hard- 
fighting career. But in his official capacity he 
had also to consider and advise what it be- 
hooved the Administration to do under the cir- 
cumstances. The feeling was widespread that 
the United States ought to possess Florida, and 
that Spain had paltered with us long enough. 
More than once in cabinet meetino^s durlnor the 
negotiation the Secretary of State, who was al- 
ways prone to strong measures, had expressed 
a wish for an act of Congress authorizing the 
Executive to take forcible possession of Florida 
and of Galveston in the event of Spain refusing 
to satisfy the reasonable demands made upc%i 
her. Now, stimulated by indignant feeling, his 
prepossession in favor of vigorous action was 
greatly strengthened, and his counsel was that 
the United States should prepare at once to 
take and hold the disputed territory, and indeed 
lome undisputed Spanish territory also. But 
Mr. Monroe and the rest of the Cabinet pre- 
ferred a milder course ; and France and Great 
Britain ventured to express to this country a 
hope that no violent action would be precipi- 
tately taken. So the matter laj' by for a while, 
awaiting the coming Df the promised envoy 
ti'om Spain. 



120 JOHN QUINCY ADAMii. 

At this time the great question of the admis* 
sion of Missouri into the Union of States be- 
gan to agitate Congress and the nation. Mr, 
Adams, deeply absorbed in the perplexing af- 
fairs of his department, into which this domestic 
problem did not enter, was at first careless of it. 
His ideas concerning the matter, he wrote, were 
"a chaos;" but it was a ''chaos" into which 
his interest in public questions soon compelled 
him to bring order. In so doing he for the first 
time fairly exposes his intense repulsion for 
slavery, his full appreciation of the irrepres- 
sible character of the conflict between the slave 
and the free populations, and the sure tendency 
of that conflict to a dissolution of the Union. 
Few men at that day read the future so clearly. 
While dissolution was generally regarded as a 
threat not really intended to be carried out, and 
compromises were supposed to be a'mply suffi- 
cient to control the successive emergencies, the 
underlying moral force of the anti-slavery move- 
ment acting against the encroaching necessities 
of the slave-holding communities constituted an 
element and involved possibilities which Mr. 
Adams, from his position of observation outside 
the immediate controversy, noted with foresee- 
ing accuracy. He discerned in passing events 
the " title-page to a great tragic volume ; " and 
he predicted that the more or less distant bul 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 121 

Bure end must be an attempt to disyolve the 
Union. His own position was distinctly defined 
from the outset, and his strong feelings were 
vigorously expressed. He beheld with profound 
regret the superiority of the slave-holding party 
in ability ; he remarked sadly how greatly they 
excelled in debating power their lukewarm op- 
ponents ; he was filled with indignation against 
the Northern men of Southern principles. " Sla- 
very," he wrote, "is the great and foul stain 
upon the North American Union, and it is a 
contemplation worthy of the most exalted soul 
whether its total abolition is or is not practica- 
ble." " A life devoted to " the emancipation 
problem " would be nobly spent or sacrificed." 
He talks with much acerbity of expression about 
the "slave-drivers," and the "flagrant image of 
human inconsistency " presented by men who 
had "the Declaration of Independence on their 
lips and the merciless scourge of slavery in their 
hands." " Never," he says, " since human sen- 
timents and human conduct were influenced by 
human speech was there a theme for eloquence 
like the free side of this question. . . . Oh, if 
but one man could arise with a genius capable 
of comprehending, and an utterance capable of 
commnnicating those eternal truths that belong 
to this question, to lay bare in all its nakedness 
that outrage upon the goodness of God, human 



122 JOUN QUINCr ADAMS. 

slavery ; now is the time and this is the occa- 
Bion, upon which such a man would perform the 
duties of an angel upon earth." Before the 
Abolitionists had begun to preach their great 
crusade this was strong and ardent language for 
a statesman's pen. Nor were these exceptional 
passages ; there is much more of the same sort 
at least equally forcible. Mr. Adams notes an 
interesting remark made to him by Calhoun at 
this time. The great Southern chief, less pre- 
scient than Mr. Adams, declared that he did 
not think that the slavery question '' would pro- 
duce a dissolution of the Union ; but if it should, 
the South would be from necessity compelled to 
form an alliance offensive and defensive with 
Great Britain." 

Concerning a suggestion that civil war might 
be preferable to the extension of slavery beyond 
the Mississippi, Adams said : " This is a ques- 
tion between the rights of human nature and 
the Constitution of the United States," — a 
form of stating the case which leaves no doubt 
'concerning his ideas of the intrinsic right and 
wrong: in the matter. His own notion was that 
slavery could not be got rid of within the 
Union, but that the only method would be dis- 
solution, after which he trusted that the course 
of events would in time surely lead to reorgan 
Ization upon the basis of universal freedom fo? 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 123 

nil. He was not a disunionist in any sense, yet 
it is evident that his strong tendency and in- 
clination were to regard emancipation as a 
weight in the scales heavier than union, if it 
should ever come to the point of an option be- 
tween the two. 

Strangely enough the notion of a forcible re- 
tention of the slave States within the Union 
does not seem to have been at this time a sub- 
stantial element of consideration. Mr. Adams 
acknowledged that there was no way at once of 
preserving the Union and escaping from the 
present emergency save through the door of 
compromise. He maintained strenuously the 
power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the 
Territories, and denied that either Congress oi 
a state government could establish slavery as a 
new institution in any State in which it was not 
already existing and recognized by law. 

This agitation of the shivery question made 
itself felt in a way personally interesting to Mr. 
Adams, by the influence it was exerting upon 
men's feelings concerning the still pending and 
dubious treaty with Spain. The South became 
jinxious to lay hands upon the Floridas and upon 
as far-reaching an area as possible in the direc- 
tion of Mexico, in order to carve it up into 
more slave States ; the North, on the other hand, 
no longer cared very eagerly for an extension of 



124 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

the Union upon its southern side. Sectional in- 
terests were getting to be more considered than 
national. Mr. Adams could not but recognize 
that in the great race for the Presidency, in 
which he could hardly help being a competitor, 
the chief advantage which he seemed to have 
won when the Senate unanimously ratified the 
Spanish treaty, had almost wholly vanished 
since that treaty had been repudiated by Spain 
and was now no longer desired by a large pro- 
portion of his own countrymen. 

Matters stood thus when the new Spanish 
envo}^ Vives, arrived. Other elements, which 
there is not space to enumerate here, besides 
those referred to, now entering newly into the 
state of affairs, further reduced the improba- 
bility of agreement almost to hopelessness. Mr. 
Adams, despairing of any other solution than 
a forcible seizure of Florida, to which he had 
long been far from averse, now visibly relaxed 
his efforts to meet the Spanish negotiator. Per- 
haps no other course could have been more 
effectual in securing success than this obvious 
indifference to it. In the prevalent condition 
of public feeling and of his own sentiments Mr 
Adams easily assumed towards General Vives u 
decisive bluntness, not altogether consonant to 
the habits of diplomacy, and manifested an un 
changeable stubbornness which left no room foi 



J 



JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 125 

discussion. His position was simply that Spain 
might make such a treaty as the United States 
demanded, or might take the consequences of 
her refusah His doo-ored will wore out the 
Spaniard's pride, and after a fruitless delay the 
King and Cortes ratified the treaty in its orig- 
inal shape, with the important addition of an 
explicit annulment of tlie land grants. It was 
again sent in to the Senate, and in spite of the 
'* continued, systematic, and laborious effort " of 
*' Mr. Clay and his partisans to make it unpop- 
ular," it was ratified by a handsome majority, 
there being against it " only four votes — Brown 
of Louisiana, who married a sister of Clay's 
wife ; Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, against 
his own better judgment, from mere political 
subserviency to Clay ; Williams of Tennessee 
from party impulses connected with hatred of 
General Jackson ; and Trimble of Ohio, from 
BO me maggot of the brain." Two years had 
elapsed since the former ratification, and no 
little patience had been required to await so 
long the final achievement of a success so ar- 
dently longed for, once apparently gained, and 
anon so cruelly thwarted. But the triumph was 
rather enhanced than diminished by all this dif- 
ficulty and delay. A long and checkered his- 
tory, wherein appeared infinite labor, many a 
severe trial of temper and hard test of moral 



126 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

courage, bitter disappointment, ignoble artiliceg 
of opponents, ungenerous opposition growing 
out of unworthy personal motives at home, was 
now at last closed by a chapter which appeared 
only the more gratifying by contrast with what 
had gone before. Mr. Adams recorded, with 
less of exultation than might have been pardon- 
able, the utter discomfiture of " all the calcula- 
tors of my downfall by the Spanish negotiation," 
and reflected cheerfully that he had been left 
with "credit rather augmented than impaired 
by the result," — credit not in excess of his de- 
serts. Many years afterwards, in changed cir- 
cumstances, an outcry was raised against the 
agreement which was arrived at concerning the 
southwestern boundary of Louisiana. Most 
unjustly it was declared that Mr. Adams had 
sacrificed a portion of the territory of the United 
States. But political motives were too plainly 
to be discerned in these tardy criticisms ; and 
though General Jackson saw fit, for personal 
reasons, to animadvert severely upon the clause 
establishing this boundary line, yet there was 
abundant evidence to show not only that he, 
like almost everybody else, had been greatly 
pleased with it at the time, but even that he 
bad then upon consultation expressed a deliber 
jite and special approval. 

The same day, February 22, 1821, closed 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 12T 

Bays Mr. Adams, " two of the most memorable 
transactions of my life." That he should speak 
thus of the exchange of ratifications of the 
Spanish treaty is natural ; but the other so 
•'memorable transaction" may not appear of 
equal magnitude. It was the sending in to Con- 
gress of his report upon weights and measures. 
This was one of those vast labors, involving 
tenfold more toil than all the negotiations with 
Onis and Vives, but bringing no proportionate 
fame, however well it might be performed. The 
subject was one which had '' occupied for the 
last sixty years many of the ablest men in 
Europe, and to which all the power and all the 
philosophical and mathematical learning and in- 
genuity of France and of Great Britain " had 
during that period been incessantly directed. 
It was fairly enough described as a '' fearful and 
oppressive task." Upon its dry and uncongen- 
ial difiiculties Mr. Adams had been employed 
with his wonted industry for upwards of four 
years; he now spoke of the result modestly as 
"a hurried and imperfect work." But others, 
who have had to deal with the subject, have 
'ound this report a solid and magnificent mon- 
;ment of research and reflection, which has not 
even yet been superseded by later treatises. Mr. 
Adams was honest in labor as in everything, 
fcnd was never careless at points where inac 



128 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

curacy or lack of thoroughness might be ex- 
pected to escape detection. Hence his success 
in a task upon which it is difficult to imagine 
other statesmen of that day — Clay, Webster, 
or Calhoun, for example — so much as making 
an effort. The topic is not one concerning 
which readers would tolerate much lingering. 
Suffice it then to say that the document illus- 
trated the ability and the character of the man, 
and so with this brief mention to dismiss in a 
paragraph an achievement which, had it been 
accomplished in any more showy department, 
would alone have rendered Mr. Adams famous. 
It is highly gratifying now to look back upon 
the high spirit and independent temper uni- 
formly displayed by Mr. Adams abroad and at 
home in all dealings with foreign powers. Never 
in any instance did he display the least tinge 
of that rodomontade and boastful extravagance 
which have given an underbred air to so many 
of our diplomats, and which inevitably cause the 
basis for such self-laudation to appear of dubious 
sufficiency. But he had the happy gift of a na- 
tive pride which enabled him to support in the 
most effective manner the dignity of the people 
for whom he spoke. For example, in treaties be- 
tween the United States and European powers 
the latter were for a time wont to name them- 
selves first throughout the instruments, conti-arj 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 129 

to the custom of alternation practised in trea- 
ties between themselves. With some difficulty, 
partly interposed, it must be confessed, by liis 
own American coadjutors, Mr. Adams succeeded 
in putting a stop to this usage. It was a matter 
of insignificant detail, in one point of view; but 
in diplomacy insignificant details often sym- 
bolize important facts, and there is no question 
that this habit had been construed as a tacit 
but intentional arrogance of superiority on the 
part of the Europeans. 

For a long period after the birth of the 
country there was a strong tendency, not yet 
so eradicated as to be altogether undiscovera- 
ble, on the part of American statesmen to keep 
one eye turned covertly askance upon the trans- 
Atlantic courts, and to consider, not without a 
certain anxious deference, what appearance the 
new United States might be presenting to the 
critical eyes of foreign countries and diplomats. 
Mr. Adams was never guilty of such indirect 
admissions of an inferiority which apparently 
he never felt. In the matter of the acquisition 
of Florida, Crawford suggested that Englauvi 
jind France regarded tlie people of the United 
States as ambitious and encroaching; where- 
fore he advised a moderate policy in order to 
vemove this impression. Mr. Adams on tiie 
oth'^.r side declared that ae was Jiot in favoi 

9 



130 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

of our giving ourselves any concern whatever 
about the opinions of any foreign povi^er. " If 
the world do not hold us for Romans," he said, 
" they will take us for Jews, and of the two 
vices I would rather be charged with that 
which has greatness mingled in its composi- 
tion." His views were broad and grand. He 
was quite ready to have the world become 
'' familiarized with the idea of considering our 
proper dominion to be the continent of North 
America." This extension he declared to be a 
" law of nature." To suppose that Spain and 
England could, through the long lapse of time, 
retain their possessions on this side of the At- 
lantic, seemed to him a " physical, moral, and 
political absurdity." 

The doctrine which has been christened with 
the name of President Monroe, seems likely to 
win for him the permanent glory of having 
originated the wise policy which that familiar 
phrase now signifies. It might, however, be 
shown that by right of true paternity the bant- 
ling should have borne a different patronymic. 
Not only is the " Monroe Doctrine," as that 
phrase is customarily construed in our day, 
much more comprehensive than the simple the- 
ory first expressed by Monroe and now included 
in the modern doctrine as a part in the whole 
but a principle more fully identical with th« 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 13l 

imperial one of to-day had been conceived and 
shaped by Mr. Adams before the delivery of 
Monroe's famous message. As has just been 
remarked, he looked forward to the possession 
of the whole North American continent by the 
United States as a sure destiny, and for his own 
part, whenever opportunity offered, he was 
never backward to promote this glorious ulti- 
mate consummation. He was in favor of the 
acquisition of Louisiana, whatever fault he 
might find with the scheme of Mr. Jefferson 
for making it a State ; he was ready in 1815 
to ask the British plenipotentiaries to cede 
Canada simply as a matter of common sense 
and mutual convenience, and as the comforta- 
ble result of a war in which the United States 
had been worsted ; he never labored harder 
than in negotiating for the Floridas, and in 
pushing our western boundaries to the Pacific ; 
in April, 1823, he wrote to the American min- 
ister at Madrid the sic^nificant remark: "It is 
scarcely possible to resist the conviction that 
the annexation of Cuba to our Federal Republic 
will be indispensable to the continuance and 
integrity of the Union." Encroachments never 
t -emed distasteful to him, and he was always 
forward to stretch a point in order to advo- 
cate or defend a seizure of disputed North 
American territory, as in the cases of Amelia 



132 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Island, Pensacola, and Galveston. When dia 
cussion arose with Russia concerning her posses- 
sions on the northwest coast of this continent, 
Mr. Adams audaciously told the Russian min- 
ister. Baron Tuyl, July 17, 1823, "that we 
should contest the rights of Russia to any terri- 
torial establishment on this continent, and that 
we should assume distinctly the principle that 
the American continents are no longer subjects 
for any new European colonial establishments." 
" This," says Mr. Charles Francis Adams in a 
foot-note to the passage in the Diary, " is the 
first hint of the policy so well known afterwards 
as the Monroe Doctrine." Nearly five months 
later, referring to the same matter in his mes- 
sage to Congress, December 2, 1823, President 
Monroe said : " The occasion has been judged 
proper for asserting, as a principle in which the 
rights and interests of the United States are in- 
volved, that the American continents, by the 
free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be 
considered as subjects for future colonization by 
any European powers." 

It will be observed that both Mr. Adams and 
President Monroe used the phrase "continents," 
including thereby South as well as North 
America. A momentous question was immi 
jent, which fortunately never called for a deter 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 138 

mination by action, tut wbicli in this latter 
part of 1823 threatened to do so at any moment. 
Cautious and moderate as the United States 
had been, under Mr. Adams's guidance, in recog- 
nizing the freedom and. autonomy of the South 
American states, yet in time the recognition 
was made of one after another, and the emanci- 
pation of South America had come, while Mr. 
Adams was yet Secretary, to be regarded as an 
established fact. But now, in 1823-2-1:, came 
mutteriuiis from across the Atlantic indiiating 
a strong probability that the members of the 
Holy Alliance would interfere in behalf of mo- 
narchical and anti-revolutionary principles, and 
would assist in tlie re-subjugation of the suc- 
cessful insurgents. Tliat each one of the pow- 
ers who should contribute to this huge crusade 
would expect and receive territorial reward, 
could not be doubted. Mr. Adams, in unison 
with most of his countrymen, contemplated with 
profound distrust and repulsion the possibility 
of such an European inroad. Stimulated by 
the prospect of so unwelcome neighbors, he 
prepared some dispatches, " drawn to corre- 
Bpond exactly " with the sentiments of Mr. 
Monroe's message, in which he appears to have 
laken a very high and defiant position. These 
documents, coming before th^ Cabinet for con- 
lideration, caused some flutter among his asso- 



134 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

ciates. In the possible event of the Holy Alli 
ance actually intermeddling in South American 
affairs, it was said, the principles enunciated by 
the Secretary of State would involve this coun- 
try in war with a very formidable confedera- 
tion. Mr. Adams acknowledged this, but cour- 
ageously declared that in such a crisis he felt 
quite ready to take even this spirited stand. 
His audacious spirit went far in advance of the 
cautious temper of the Monroe Administration ; 
possibly it went too far in advance of the dic- 
tates of a wise prudence, though fortunately 
the course of events never brought this ques- 
tion to trial ; and it is at least gratifying to 
contemplate such a manifestation of daring tem- 
per. 

But though so bold and independent, Mr. 
Adams was not habitually reckless nor prone 
to excite animosity by needless arrogance in ac- 
Mon or extravagance in principle. In any less 
perilous extremity than Avas presented by this 
menaced intrusion of combined Europe he fol- 
lowed rigidly the wise rule of non-interference. 
For many years before this stage was reached 
he had been holding in difficult check the 
enthusiasts who, under the lead of Mr. Clay, 
would have embroiled us with Spain and Por- 
tugal. Once he was made the recipient of a 
v^ery amusing proposition from the Portuguese 



JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. 135 

minister, that the United States and Portugal, 
as " the two great powers of the western 
hemisphere," should concert together a grand 
American system. The drollery of this notion 
was of a kind that Mr. Adams could appreci- 
ate, though to most manifestations of humor he 
was utterly impervious. But after giving vent 
to some contemptuous merriment he adds, with 
a just and serious pride : " As to an American 
Bystem, we have it ; we constitute the whole of 
it ; there is no communit}'^ of interests or of 
principles between North and South America." 
This sound doctrine was put forth in 1820 ; 
and it was only modified in the manner that 
we have seen during a brief period in 1823, in 
face of the alarming vision not only of Spain 
and Portugal restored to authority, but of Rus- 
sia in possession of California and more, France 
in possession of Mexico, and perhaps Great 
Britain becoming mistress of Cuba. 

So far as European affairs were concerned, 
Mr. Adams always and consistently refused to 
become entangled in them, even in the slight 
est and most indirect manner. When the cause 
of Greek liberty aroused the usual throng of 
noisy advocates for active interference, he con- 
tented himself vnth expressions of cordial sym- 
pathy, accompanied by perfectly distinct and 
explicit statements that under no circumstances 



136 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Bould any aid in the way of money oi auxiliary 
forces be expected from this comitry. Neiitrala 
we were and would remain in any and all 
European quarrels. When Stratford Canning 
urged, with the uttermost meastire of persis' 
tence of which even he was capable, that for 
the suppression of the slave trade some such ar- 
rangement might be made as that of mixed tri- 
bunals for the trial of slave-trading vessels, and 
alleged that divers European powers were unit- 
ing for this purpose, Mr. Adams suggested, as 
an insuperable obstacle, '' the general extra-Eu- 
ropean policy of the United States — a pol- 
icy which they had always pursued as best 
suited to then- own interests, and best adapted 
to harmonize with those of Europe. This pol- 
icy had also been that of Europe, which had 
never considered the United States as belong- 
ing to her system. ... It was best for both 
parties that they should continue to do so." In 
any European combinations, said Mr. Adams, 
in which the United States should become a 
member, she must soon become an important 
power, and must always be, in many respects, 
an uncongenial one. It was best that she 
should keep wholly out of European politics, 
even of such leagues as one for the suppres- 
sion of the slave trade. He added, that he did 
t}ot wish his language to be construed as im 



JOHN QUJNCr ADAMS. 137 

porting " an unsocial and sulky spirit on the 
part of the United States ; " for no such tem- 
per existed ; it had simply been the policy of 
Europe to consider this country as standing 
aloof from all European federations, and in this 
treatment " we had acquiesced, because it fell 
in with our own policy." 

In a word, Mr. Adams, by his language and 
actions, established and developed precisely that 
doctrine which has since been adopted by this 
country under the doubly incorrect name of the 
" Monroe Doctrine," — a name doubly incor- 
rect, because even the real " Monroe Doctrine '* 
was not an original idea of Mr. Monroe, and 
because the doctrine which now goes by that 
name is not identical with the doctrine which 
Monroe did once declare. Mr. Adams's princi- 
ple was simply that the United States would 
take no part whatsoever in foreign politics, not 
even in those of South America, save in the ex- 
treme event, eliminated from among things pos- 
sible in this generation, of such an interference 
as was contemplated by the Holy Alliance ; and 
that, on the other hand, she would permit no 
European power to gain any new foothold upon 
this continent. Time and experience have not 
enabled us to in-prove upon the principles 
which Mr. Adams worked out for us. 

Mr. Adams had some pretty stormy times 



138 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

vdth Mr. Stratford Canning — the same gentle- 
man wlio in his later life is familiar to the read- 
ers of Kinglake's History of the Crimean War 
as Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, or Eltchi. That 
minister's overbearing and dictatorial deport- 
ment was afterwards not out of place when he 
was representirg the protecting power of Great 
Britain in the court of the " sick man." But 
when he began to display his arrogance in the 
face of Mr. Adams he found that he was beard- 
ing one who was at least his equal in pride and 
temper. The na'ive surprise which he man- 
ifested on making this discovery is very amus- 
ing, and the accounts of the interviews between 
the two are among the most pleasing episodes in 
the history of our foreign relations. Nor are 
they less interesting as a sort of confidential 
peep at the asperities of diplomacy. It appears 
that besides the composed and formal dignity of 
phrase which alone the public knows in published 
state papers and official correspondence, there is 
also an official language of wrath and retort not 
at all artificial or stilted, but quite homelike 
and human in its sound. 

One subject much discussed between Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Canning related to the Eng- 
lish propositions for joint efforts to suppress 
the slave trade. Great Britain had engaged 
mt\\ much vigor and certainly with an admir 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 139 

able humanity in this cause. Her scheme waa 
that each power should keep armed cruisers on 
the coast of Africa, that the war-ships of either 
nation might search the merchant vessels of the 
other, and that mixed courts of joint commis- 
sioners should try all cases of capture. This 
plan had been urged upon the several Euro- 
pean nations, but with imperfect success. Por- 
tugal, Spain, and the Netherlands had assented 
to it ; Russia, France, Austria, and Prussia 
had rejected it. Mr. Adams's notion was that 
the ministry were, in their secret hearts, rather 
lukewarm in the business, but that they were 
so pressed by " the party of the saints in Par- 
liament " that they were obliged to make a 
parade of zeal. VVliether this suspicion was 
correct or not, it is certain tliat Mr. Stratford 
Canning was very persistent in the presenta- 
tion of his demands, and could not be persuaded 
to take No for an answer. Had it been pos- 
sible to give any more favorable reply no one 
in the United States in that day would have 
been better pleased than Mr. Adams to do so. 
But the obstacles were insuperable. Besides 
the undesirability of departing from the *' ex- 
tra-European policy," the mixed courts would 
have been unconstitutional, and could not have 
been established even by act of Congress, 
while the claims advanced by Great Britain tc 



140 JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 

search our ships for English-born seamen in 
time of war, utterly precluded the possibility 
of admitting any rights of search whatsoever 
upon her part even in time of peace for any 
purpose or in any shape. In vain did the Eng- 
lishman reiterate his appeal. Mr. Adams as 
often explained that the insistence of England 
upon her outrageous claim had rendered the 
United States so sensitive upon the entire sub- 
ject of search that no description of right of 
that kind could ever be tolerated. " All con- 
cession of principle," he said, " tended to en- 
courage encroachment, and if naval officers 
were once habituated to search the vessels of 
other nations in time of peace for one thing, 
they would be still more encouraged to practise 
it for another thing in time of war." The only 
way for Great Britain to achieve her purpose 
would be "to bind herself by an article, as 
strong and explicit as language can make it, 
never again in time of war to take a man from 
an American vessel." This of course was an 
inadmissible proposition, and so Mr. Stratford 
Canning's incessant urgency produced no sub- 
stantial results. This discussion, however, was 
generally harmonious. Once only, in its earlier 
Btages, Mr. Adams notes a remark of Mr. Can 
ning, repeated for the second time, and not alto 
gether gratifying. He said, writes Mc Adams 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 141 

' that he should always receive any observa* 
ions that I may make to him with a just defer- 
3nce to my advance of years — over him. This 
is one of those equivocal compliments which, 
according to Sterne, a Frenchman always re- 
turns with a bow." 

It was when they got upon the matter of the 
American settlement at the mouth of the Co- 
lumbia River, that the two struck fire. Posses- 
Bion of this disputed spot had been taken by 
the Americans, but was broken up by the Brit- 
ish during the war of 1812. After the declara- 
tion of peace upon the status ante helium^ a 
British government vessel had been dispatched 
upon the special errand of making formal re- 
turn of the port to the Americans. In January, 
1821, certain remarks made in debate in the 
House of Representatives, followed soon after- 
ward by publication in the National Intelli- 
gencer of a paper signed by Senator Eaton, led 
Mr. Canning to think that the Government en- 
tertained the design of establishing a substan- 
tial settlement at the mouth of the river. On 
January 26 he called upon Mr. Adams and 
inquired the intentions of the Administration 
►n regard to this. Mr. Adam3 replied that an 
increase of the present settlement was not im- 
Drobable. Thereupon Mr. Canning dropping 
the air of " easy familiarity *' which had previ- 



142 JOHN QU1^CY ADAMS. 

Dusly marked the intercourse between the two, 
and "assuming a tone more peremptory " than 
Mr. Adams '•'• was disposed to endure," ex- 
pressed his great surprise. Mr. Adams " with 
a corresponding change of tone " expressed 
equal surprise, " both at the form and sub- 
stance of his address." Mr. Canning said that 
"he conceived such a settlement w^ould be a 
direct violation of the article of the Convention 
of 20th October, 1818." Mr. Adams took down 
a volume, read the article, and said, " Novr, sir, 
if you have any charge to make against the 
American Government for a violation of this 
article, you will please to make the communica- 
tion in writing." Mr. Canning retorted, with 
great vehemence : — 

" * And do you suppose, sir, that I am to be dictated 
to as to the manner in which I may think proper to 
communicate with the American Government?' I 
answered, ' No, sir. We know very well what are the 
privileges of foreign ministers, and mean to respect 
them. But you will give us leave to determine what 
communications we will receive, and how we will re- 
ceive them ; and you may be assured we are as little 
disposed to submit to dictation as to exercise it.' He 
then, in a louder and more passionate tone of voice, 
said : ' And am I to understand that I am to be re» 
fused henceforth any conference with you upon th« 
fiuryect of my mission ? ' ' Not at all, sir,' said I 



JOHI^ QUINCY ADAMS. 143 

my request is, that if you have anything further to 
lay to me upon this subject, you would say it in writ- 
ing. And my motive is to avoid what, both from tlio 
nature of the subject and from the manner in which 
you have thought proper to open it, I foresee will 
tend only to mutual irritation, and not to an amicable 
arrangement.' With some abatement of tone, but in 
the same peremptory manner, he said, ' Am I to un- 
derstand that you refuse any further conference with 
me on this subject?' I said, 'No. But you will un- 
derstand that I am not pleased either with the grounds 
upon which you have sought this conference, nor with 
the questions which you have seen fit to put to me.' " 

Mr. Adams then proceeded to expose the 
impropriety of a foreign minister demanding 
from the Administration an explanation of 
words uttered in debate in Congress, and also 
said that he supposed that the British had no 
chiim to the territory in question. Mr. Can- 
ning rejoined, and referred to the sending out 
of the American ship of war Ontario, in 1817, 
without any notice to the British minister^ at 
Washington, — 

" speaking in a very emphatic manner and as if 

here had been an intended secret expedition . . 

ivhich had been detected only by the vigilance and 

penetration of the British minister. I answered, 

Why, Mr. Bagot did say something to me about it ; 

1 Then Mr. Bagot. 



144 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

but I certainly did not think him serious, and we had 
a good-humored laughing conversation on the occa- 
sion.' Canning, with great vehemence : ' You may 
rely upon it, sir, that it was no laughing matter to 
him ; for I have seen his report to his government 
and know what his feelings concerning it were.' T 
replied, ' This is the first intimation I have ever re- 
ceived that Mr. Bagot took the slightest offence at 
what then passed between us, . . . and you will give 
me leave to say that when he left this country — 
Here I was going to add that the last words he said 
to me were words of thanks for the invariable urban- 
ity and liberality of my conduct and the personal kind- 
ness which he had uniformly received from me. But 
I could not finish the sentence. Mr. Canning, in a par- 
oxysm of extreme irritation, broke out : ' I stop you 
there. I will not endure a misrepresentation of what 
I say. I never said that Mr. Bagot took offence at 
anything that had passed between him and you ; and 
nothing that I said imported any such thing.' Then 
. . added in the same passionate manner : ' I am 
treated like a school-boy.' I then resumed: 'Mr. 
Canning, I have a distinct recollection of the sub- 
stance of the short conversation between Mr. Bagot 
and me at that time ; and it was this — ' ' No doubt, 
eir,' said Canning, interrupting me again, ' no doubt, 
sir, Mr. Bagot answered you like a man of good 
breeding and good humor.' 



> >> 



Mr. Adams began again and succeeded in 
making, without further interruption, a carefu 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 145 

recital of his talk with Mr. Bagot. While he 
was speaking Mr. Canning grew cooler, and ex- 
pressed some surprise at what he heard,. But in 
a few moments the conversation again became 
warm and personal. Mr. Adams remarked that 
heretofore he had thrown off some of the "cau 
tious reserve " which might have been "strictly 
regular" between them, and that 

" ' so long as his (Canning's) professions had beep 
Bupported by his conduct ' — Here Mr. Canning 
again stopped me by repeating with great vehemence, 
' My conduct ! I am responsible for my conduct only 
to my government ! ' " 

Mr. Adams replied, substantially, that he 
could respect the rights of j\Ir. Canning and 
maintain his own, and that he thought the best 
mode of treating this topic in future would be 
by writing. Mr. Canning then expressed him- 
self as 

" ' willing to forget all that had now passed.' I 

told him that I neither asked nor promised him to 

forget. . . . He asked again if he was to understand 

me as refusing to confer with him further on the 

subject. I said, ' No.' ' Would I appoint a time for 

tliat purpose ? ' I said, ' Now, if he pleased. . . . 

But as he appeared to be under some excitement, 

perhaps he might prefer some otner time, in which 

case I would readily receive him to-morrow at one 

o'clock ; ' upon which he rose and took leave, saying 

be would come at that time." 
10 



146 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

The next day, accordingly, this genial pair 
Bgain encountered. Mr. Adams noted at first 
in Mr. Canning's manner " an effort at coohiess, 
but no appearance of cheerfuhiess or good 
humor. I saw there was no relaxation of the 
tone he had yesterday assumed, and felt that 
none would on my part be suitable." They 
went over quietly enough some of the ground 
traversed the day before, Mr. Adams again ex- 
plaining the impropriety of Mr. Canning ques- 
tioning him concerning remarks made in de- 
bate in Congress. It was, he said, as if Mr. 
Rush, hearing in the House of Commons some- 
thing said about sending troops to the Shet- 
land Islands, should proceed to question Lord 
Castlereagh about it. 

" ' Have you,' said Mr. Canning, ' any claim to the 
Shetland Islands ? ' ' Have you any claim,* said I, ' to 
the mouth of Columbia River ? ' ' Why, do you not 
blow,' replied he, ' that we have a claim ? ' ' I do not 
know,'' said I, ' wliat you claim nor what you do not 
claim. You claim India ; you claim Africa ; you 
claim ' — ' Perhaps,' said he, ' a piece of the moon. 
' No,' said I, ' I have not heard that you claim exoiu 
sively any part of the moon ; but there is not a spot 
on this habitable globe that I could affirm you do no* 
claim ! ' " 

The conversation continued with alternations of 
lull and storm, Mr. Canning at times becoming 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 147 

ivarm and incensed and interrupting Mr. Ad- 
ams, who retorted with a dogged asperity which 
must have been extremely irritating. Mr. Ad- 
ams said that he did " not expect to be plied 
with captious questions " to obtain indirectly 
that which had been directly denied. Mr. Can- 
ning, '' exceedingly irritated," complained of 
the word "captious." Mr. Adams retaliated 
by reciting offensive language used by Mr. 
Canning, who in turn replied that he had been 
speaking only in self-defence. Mr. Canning 
found occasion to make again his peculiarly 
rasping remark that he should always strive 
to show towards Mr. Adams the deference due 
to his " more advanced years." After another 
very uncomfortable passage, Mr. Adams said 
that the behavior of Mr. Canninsr in makino; 
the observations of members of Congress a basis 
of official interrogations was a pretension the 
more necessary to be resisted because this 

" ' was not the first time it had been raised by a 
British minister here.' He asked, with great emo- 
tion, who that minister was. I answered, ' INIr. Jack- 
son.' ' And you got rid of him ! ' said Mr. Canning, 
in a tone of violent passion — 'and you got rid of 
him ! — and you got rid of him ! ' This repetition of 
the sa-Tie words, always in the same tone, was with 
oauses of a few seconds between each of them, as if 
lor a reply. I said : ' Sir, my reference to the pre- 



148 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

tension of Mr. Jackson was not ' — Here Mr. 
Canning interrupted me by saying : * If you think 
that by reference to Mr. Jackson I am to be intimi- 
dated from the performance of my duty you will find 
yourself greatly mistaken.' 'I had not, sir,' said T, 
' the most distant intention of intimidating you from 
the performance of your duty ; nor was it with the 
intention of alluding to any subsequent occurrences 
of his mission ; but ' — Mr. Canning interrupted 
me again by saying, still in a tone of high exaspera- 
tion, — ' Let me tell you, sir, that your reference 
to the case of Mr. Jackson is exceedingly offensive.'' 
' I do not know,' said I, ' whether I shall be able to 
finish what I intended to say, under such continual 
interruptions.' " 

Mr. Canning thereupon intimated by a bow his 
willingness to listen, and Mr. Adams reiterated 
what in a more fragmentary way he bad already 
said. Mr. Canning then made a formal speech, 
mentioning bis desire " to cultivate harmony 
and smooth down all remnants of asperity be- 
tween the two countries," again gracefully re- 
ferred to the deference which he should at all 
times pay to Mr. Adams's age, and closed by 
declaring, with a significant emphasis, that he 
would " never forget the respect due from hinr 
iO the American Government.^^ Mr. Adama 
bowed in silence and the stormy interview 
ended. A day or two afterward the disputants 
met by accident, and Mr. Canning showed sucb 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 149 

ligns of resentment that there passed between 
them a *' bare salutation." 

In the condition of our relations with Great 
Britain at the time of these interviews any 
needless ill-feeling was strongly to be depre- 
cated. But Mr. Adams's temperament was 
Buch that he always saw the greater chance of 
success in strong and spirited conduct ; nor 
could he endure that the dignity of the Repub- 
lic, any more than its safety, should take detri- 
ment in his hands. Moreover he understood 
Englishmen better perhaps than they have 
ever been understood by any other of the pub- 
lic men of the United States, and he handled 
and subdued them with a temper and skill 
highly agreeable to contemplate. The Pres- 
ident supported him fully throughout the mat- 
ter, and the discomfiture and wrath of Mr. 
Canning never became even indirectly a cause 
of regret to the country. 

As the years allotted to Monroe passed on, 
the manoeuvring among the candidates for the 
Buccession to the Presidency grew in activity. 
There were several possible presidents in the 
field, and during the '' era of good feeling " 
many an aspiring politician had his brief period 
of mild expectancy followed in most cases only 
too surely by a hopeless relegation to obscurity. 
Tlere were, however, four whose anticipations 



150 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

rested upon a substantial basis. William H 
Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, had been 
tlie rival of Monroe for nomination by the Con- 
gressional caucus, and had then developed suf- 
ficient strength to make him justly sanguine 
that he might stand next to Monroe in the suc- 
cession as he apparently did in the esteem of 
their common party. Mr. Clay, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, had such expecta- 
tions as might fairly grow out of his brilliant 
reputation, poAverful influence in Congress, and 
great personal popularity. Mr. Adams was 
pointed out not only by his deserts but also by 
his position in the Cabinet, it having been the 
custom heretofore to promote the Secretary of 
State to the Presidency. It was not until the 
time of election was near at hand that the 
strength of General Jackson, founded of course 
upon the effect of his military prestige upon 
the masses of the people, began to appear to the 
other competitors a formidable element in the 
great rivalry. For a while Mr. Calhoun might 
have been regarded as a fifth, since he had al- 
ready become the great chief of the South ; but 
this cause of his strength was likewise his weak- 
ness, since it was felt that the North was fairly 
entitled to present the next candidate. Tha 
others, who at one time and another had aspi 
tationo, like De Witt Clinton and Tompkina 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 151 

were never reall}^ formidable, and may be dis- 
regarded as insignificant threads in the complex 
political snarl which must be unravelled. 

As a study of the dark side of political 
Bociety during this period Mr. Adams's Diary 
is profoundly interesting. He writes with a 
charming absence of reserve. If he thinks 
there is rascality at work, he sets down the 
names of the knaves and expounds their various 
villainies of act and motive with delightfully 
outspoken frankness. All his life he was some- 
what prone, it must be confessed, to depreciate 
the moral characters of others, and to suspect 
unworthy designs in the methods or ends of those 
who crossed his path. It was the not unnatural 
result of his own rigid resolve to be honest. 
Refraining with the stern conscientiousness, 
which was in the composition of his Puritan 
blood, from every act, whether in public or in 
private life, which seemed to him in the least 
degree tinged witli immorality, he found a sort 
of compensation for the restraints and discom- 
forts of his own austerity in judging severely the 
less punctilious world around him. Whatever 
other faults he had, it is unquestionable that 
his uprightness was as consistent and unvarying 
as can be reached by human nature. Yet his 
temptations were made the greater and thf 
toore cruel by the beliefs constantly borne in 



152 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

apon him that his rivals did not accept for theii 
own govfrnance in the contest the same rules 
by which he was pledged to himself to abide. 
Jealousy enhanced suspicion, and suspicion in 
turn pricked jealousy. It is necessary, there- 
fore, to be somewhat upon our guard in accept- 
ing his estimates of men and acts at this period ; 
though the broad general impression to be gath- 
ered from his treatment of his rivals, even in 
these confidentipJ pages, is favorable at least to 
his justice of disposition and honesty of inten- 
tion. 

At the outset Mr. Clay excited Mr. Adams's 
most lively resentment. The policy which 
Beemed most promising to that gentleman lay in 
antagonism to the Administration, whereas, in 
the absence of substantial party issues, there 
Beemed, at least to members of that Administra- 
tion, to be no proper grounds for such antago- 
nism. When, therefore, Mr. Clay found or de- 
vised such grounds, the. President and his 
Cabinet, vexed and harassed by the opposition 
of so influential a man, not unnaturally attrib- 
uted his tactics to selfish and, in a political sense, 
corrupt motives. Thus Mr. Adams stigmatized 
his opposition to the Florida treaty as prompted 
by no just objection to its stipulations, but by a 
malicious wish to bring discredit upon the nego 
Kator. Probably the charge was true, and M» 



\ 



JOE.N QUINCY ADAMS. 153 

\ ■ 

Clay's honesty in;) apposing an admirable treaty 
can only be vindicated at the expense of his un- 
derstanding, — an 6- :planation certainly not to 
be accepted. But wl.en Mr. Adams attributed 
to the same motive of embarrassing the Admin- 
istration Mr. Clay's energetic endeavors to force 
a recognition of the insurgent states of South 
America, he exaggerated the inimical element 
in his rival's motives. It was the business of 
the President and Cabinet, and preeminently 
of the Secretary of State, to see to it that the 
country should not move too fast in this very 
nice and perilous matter of recognizing the in- 
dependence of rebels. Mr. Adams was the re- 
Bponsible minister, and liad to hold the reins; 
Mr. Clay, outside the officiiil vehicle, cracked 
the lash probably a little more loudly than he 
would have done had he been on the coach-box. 
It may be assumed that in ad"v oca^.ing his vari- 
ous motions looking to the appohitment of min- 
isters to the new states and io other acts of 
recognition, he felt his eloquence rather fiied 
than dampened by the thought of how much 
trouble he was making for Mr. Adams; but that 
he was at the same time espousing' the cause to 
which he sincerely wished well is piobably true. 
His ardent temper was stirred- by this strug- 
gle for independence, and his rhetoi'ical nature 
tould not resist the opportunities for fervid and 



154 -fOEN aulNCY AD J MS. 

Drilliant oratory presented by this struggle for 
freedom against mediaeval despotism. Real con- 
victions were sometimes diluted with rodomon- 
tade, and a true feeling was to some extent stim- 
ulated by the desire to embarrass a rival. 
' Entire freedom from prejudice would have 
been too nmch to expec* from Mr. Adams ; but 
his criticisms of Clay are seldom marked by any 
serious accusations or really bitter explosions of 
ill-temper. Early in his term of office he writes 
that Mr. Clay has "already mounted his South 
American great horse," and that his " project 
is that in which John Randolph failed, to con 
trol or overthrow the Executive by swaying the 
House of Representiitives." Again he says that 
" Clay is as rancGrously benevolent as John 
Randolph." The stiug of these remarks lay 
rather in the comparison with Randolph than 
in their direct a^llegations. In January, 1819, 
Adams notes tliat Clay has " redoubled his ran- 
cor against me,/" and gives himself " free swing 
to assault me i. . . both in his public speeches 
and by secret; machinations, without scruple or 
delicacy." The diarist gloomily adds, that "all 
public business in Congress now connects itself 
with intrigides, and there is great danger that 
the whole JGoVernment will degenerate into h 
struggle oi cabals." He was rather inclined to 
Ruch pesshmistic vaticinations ; but it must be 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 155 

confessed that lie spoke with too much reason 
on this occasion. In the absence of a suflBcient 
supply of important public questions to absorb 
the energies of the men in public life, the petty 
game of personal politics was playing with un- 
usual zeal. As time went on, however, and the 
South American questions were removed from 
the arena, Adams's ill-feeling towards Clay be- 
came greatly mitigated. Clay's assaults and 
opposition also gradually dwindled away ; go- 
betweens carried to and fro disclaimers, made 
by the principals, of personal ill-will towards 
each other; and before the time of election was 
actually imminent something as near the en^ 
tente cordiale was established as could be rea- 
sonably expected to exist between competitors 
very unlike both in moral and mental consti- 
tution.^ 

Mr. Adams's unbounded indignation and pro- 
found contempt were reserved for Mr. Craw- 
ford, partly, it may be . suspected by the cynic- 
ally minded, because Crawford for a long time 
seemed to be by far the most formidable rival, 
but partly also because Crawford was in fact 
unable to resist the temptation to use ignoble 
means for attaining an end which he coveted too 
keenly for his own honor. It was only by de- 

1 For a deliberate estimate )f Tlay's character ^ee Mr 
Idams's Diary, ^ 325. 



156 JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 

grees that Adams began to suspect the under 
hand methods and malicious practices of Craw- 
ford ; but as conviction was gradually brought 
home to him his native tendency towards sus- 
picion was enhanced to an extreme degree. He 
then came to recognize in Crawford a wholly 
selfish and scheming politician, who had the 
baseness to retain his seat in Mr. Monroe's Cab- 
inet with the secret persistent object of giving 
the most fatal advice in his power. From that 
time forth he saw in every suggestion made by 
the Secretary of the Treasury only an insidijus 
intent to lead the Administration, and especially 
the Department of State, into difficulty, failure, 
and disrepute. He notes, evidently with per- 
fect belief, that for this purpose Crawford was 
even covertly busy with the Spanish ambassador 
to prevent an accommodation of our differences 
with Spain. '' Oh, the windings of the human 
heart ! " he exclaims ; " possibly Crawford is not 
himself conscious of his real motives for this 
conduct." Even the slender measure of charity 
involved in this last sentence rapidly evaporated 
from the poisoned atmosphere of his mind. He 
mentions that Crawford has killed a man in a 
duel ; that he leaves unanswered a pamphlet 
" supported by documents " exhibiting him " in 
the most odious light, as sacrificing every prin- 
tiple to his ambition." Because Calhoun would 



JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 157 

not support him for the Presidency, Crawford 
stimulated a series of attacks upon the War De- 
partment. He was the " instigator and animat- 
ing spirit of the whole movement both in Con- 
gress and at Richmond against Jackson and the 
Administration." He was ''a worm preying 
upon the vitals of the Administration in its own 
body." He " solemnly deposed in a court of 
justice that which is not true," for the purpose 
of bringing discredit upon the testimony given 
by Mr. Adams in the same cause. But Mr. 
Adams says of this that he cannot bring him- 
self to believe that Crawford has been guilty of 
wilful falsehood, though convicted of inaccuracy 
by his own words; for "ambition debauches 
memory itself." A little later he would have 
been less merciful. In some vexatious and diffi- 
cult commercial negotiations which Mr. Adams 
was conducting with France, Crawford is "afraid 
of [the result] being too favorable." 

To form a just opinion of the man thus un- 
pleasantly sketched is difficult. For nearly eight 
years Mr. Adams was brought into close and 
constant relations w^ith him, and as a result 
formed a very low opinion of his character and 
by no means a high estimate of his abilities. 
Even after making a liberal allowance for 
the prejudice naturally supervening from their 
rivalry there is left a residuum of condemnation 



158 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

abundantly suflBcient to ruin a more vigoroua 
reputation than Crawford has left behind him. 
Apparently Mr. Calhoun, though a fellow 
Southerner, thought no better of the ambitious 
Georgian than did Mr. Adams, to whom one 
day he remarked that Crawford was " a very 
singular instance of a man of such character 
rising to the eminence he now occupies ; that 
there has not been in the history of the Union 
another man with abilities so ordinary, with ser- 
vices so slender, and so thoroughly corrupt, who 
had contrived to make himself a candidate for 
the Presidency." Nor was this a solitary ex- 
pression of the feelings of the distinguished 
South Carolinian. 

Mr. E. H. Mills, Senator from Massachusetts, 
and a dispassionate observer, speaks of Craw- 
ford with scant favor as " coarse, rough, uned- 
ucated, of a pretty strong mind, a great in- 
triguer, and determined to make himself Pres- 
ident." He adds: "Adams, Jackson, and 
Calhoun all think well of each other, and are 
united at least in one thing — to wit, a most 
thorough dread and abhorrence of Crawford." 

Yet Crawford was for many years not only 
never without eager expectations of his own, 
which narrowly missed realization and might 
aot have missed it had not his health broken 
down a few months too soon, but he had a largi 



JOHN QVINCY ADAMS. 159 

following, strong friends, and an extensive in- 
fluence. But if he really had great ability he 
had not the good fortune of an opportunity to 
show it ; and he lives in history rather as a man 
from whom much was expected than as a man 
who achieved much. One faculty, however, not 
of the best, but serviceable, he had in a rare de- 
gree ; he thoroughly understood all the artifices 
of politics ; he knew how to interest and organ- 
ize partisans, to obtain newspaper support, and 
generally to extend and direct his following 
after that fashion which soon afterward began 
to be fully developed by the younger school of 
our public men. He was the avant courier of a 
bad system, of which the first crude manifesta- 
tions were received with well-merited disrelish 
by the worthier among his contemporaries. 

It is the more easy to believe that Adams's 
distrust of Crawford was a sincere convic- 
tion, when we consider his behavior towards 
another dangerous rival, General Jackson. In 
view of the new phase which the relationship 
between these two men was soon to take on, 
Adams's hearty championship of Jackson for 
several years prior to 1825 deserves mention. 
The Secretary stood gallantly by the General at 
A crisis in Jackson's life when he greatly needed 
A Euch strong official backing, and in an hour of 
'loixtreme need Adams aloue in the Cabinet of 



160 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Monroe lent an assistance which Jackson after- 
wards too readily forgot. Seldom has a govern- 
ment been brought by the undue ;eal of its ser- 
vants into a quandary more perplexing than that 
into which the reckless military hero brought the 
Administration of President Monroe. Turned 
loose in the regions of Florida, checked only by 
an uncertain and disputed boundary line running 
through half-explored forests, confronted by a 
hated foe whose strength he could well afford 
to despise, General Jackson, in a war properly 
waged only against Indians, ran a wild and 
lawless, but very vigorous and effective, career 
in Spanish possessions. He hung a couple of 
British subjects with as scant trial and meagre 
shrift as if he had been a mediaeval free-lance ; 
he marched upon Spanish towns and peremp- 
torily forced the blue-blooded commanders to 
capitulate in the most humiliating manner ; 
afterwards, when the Spanish territory had be- 
come American, in his civil capacity as Gov- 
ernor, he flung the Spanish Commissioner into 
jail. He treated instructions, laws, and estab- 
lished usages as teasing cobwebs which any 
spirited public servant was in duty bound to 
break ; then he quietly stated his willingness to 
iet the country take the benefit of his irregular 
proceedings and make him the scapegoat or 
martyr if such should be needed. How to treal 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 161 

this too successful chieftain was no simple prob- 
lem. He had done what he ought not to have 
done, yet everybody in the country was heartily 
glad that he bad done it. He ought not to have 
hung Arbutlinot and Ambrister, nor to have 
Beized Peusacola, nor later on to have imprisoned 
Callava; yet the general efficiency of his pro- 
cedure fully accorded with the secret disposition 
of the country. It was, however, not easy to 
estabUsh the propriety of his trenchant doings 
upon any acknowledged principles of law, and 
during the long period through which these dis- 
turbing feats extended, Jackson was left in 
painful solitude by those who felt obliged to 
judge his actions by rule rather than by sym- 
pathy. The President was concerned lest his 
Administration should be brought into indefen- 
sible embarrassment ; Calhoun was personally 
dis[)leased because the instructions issued from 
his department had been exceeded ; Crawford 
eagerly sought to make the most of such admir- 
able opportunities for destroying the prestige 
of one who might grow into a dangerous rival ; 
Clay, who hated a military hero, indulged in a 
series of fierce denunciations in the House of 
Representatives ; Mr. Adams alone stood gal- 
antly by the man who had dared to take vigor- 
.lus measures upon his own sole responsibility. 
His career touched a kindred chord in Adams'fl 



162 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

own independent and courageous character, ana 
perhaps for the only time in his life the Secre- 
tary of State became almost sophistical in the 
arguments by which he endeavored to sustain 
the impetuous warrior against an adverse Cab- 
inet. The authority given to Jackson to cross 
the Spanish frontier in pursuit of the Indian en- 
emy was justified as being only defensive war- 
fare ; then ''all the rest," argued Adams, " even 
to the order for taking the Fort of Barrancas by 
storm, was incidental, deriving its character from 
the object, which was not hostility to Spain, but 
the termination of the Indian war." Through 
long and anxious sessions Adams stood fast in 
opposing " the unanimous opinions " of the 
President, Crawford, Calhoun, and Wirt. Their 
policy seemed to him a little ignoble and wholly 
blundering, because, he said, "it is weakness 
and a confession of weakness. The disclaimer 
of power in the executive is of dangerous ex- 
ample and of evil consequences. There is in- 
justice to the ofl&cer in disavowing him, when in 
principle he is strictly justifiable." This be- 
havior upon Mr. Adams's part was the more 
generous and disinterested because the earlier 
among these doings of Jackson incensed Don 
Onis extremely and were near bringing about 
the entire disruption of that important negotia- 
fcioi with Spain upon which Mr. Adams had sc 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 163 

nmcli at stake. But few civilians have had a 
Btronger dash of the fighting element than had 
Mr. Adams, and this impelled him irresistibly 
to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jackson in 
Buch an emergency, regardless of possible con- 
sequences to himself. He preferred to insist 
that the hanging: of Arbuthnot and Ambrister 
was according to the laws of war and to main- 
tain that position in the teeth of Stratford 
Canning rather than to disavow it and render 
apology and reparation. So three years later 
when Jackson was again in trouble by reason of 
his arrest of Callava, he still found a staunch 
advocate in Adams, who, having made an argu- 
ment for the defence which would have done 
credit to a subtle-minded barrister, concluded 
by adopting the sentiment of Hume concerning 
the execution of Don Pantaleon de Sa by Oliver 
Cromwell, — if the laws of nations had been 
violated, "it was by a signal act of justice de- 
serving universal approbation." Later still, on 
January 8, 1824, being the anniversary of the 
♦victory of New Orleans, as if to make a con- 
spicuous declaration of his opinions in favor of 
Jackson, Mr. Adams gave a great ball in his 
honor, '* at which about cne thousand persons 
attended." ^ 

1 Senator Mills says of thi3 g"-and ball: "Eight large 
woois were oi)en and literally filled to overflowing. There 



164 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

He was in favor of offering to the General 
the position of minister to Mexico ; and before 
Jackson had developed into a rival of himself 
for the Presidency, he exerted himself to secure 
the Vice-Presidency for him. Thus by argu- 
ment and by influence in the Cabinet, in many 
a private interview, and in the world of society, 
also by wise counsel when occasion offered, Mr. 
Adams for many years made himself the note- 
worthy and indeed the only powerful friend of 
General Jackson. Nor up to the last moment, 
and when Jackson had become his most danger- 
ous competitor, is there any derogatory passage 
concerning him in the Diary. 

As the period of election drew nigh, interest 
in it absorbed everything else; indeed during 
the last year of Monroe's Administration public 
affairs were so quiescent and the public business 
so seldom transcended the simplest routine, that 
there was little else than the next Presidency to 
be thought or talked of. The rival ship for this, 
as has been said, was based not upon conflict- 
ing theories concerning public affairs, but solely 
upon individual preference for one or another 

must have been at least a thousand people there ; and so far 
SIS Mr. Adams was concerned it certainly evinced a great deal 
of tasie, elegance, and good sense. . . . Many stayed till twelve 
and one. ... It i'^ the universa' opinion that nothing has evei 
equalled this party here either in brilliancy of preparation oj 
elegance of the company." 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 165 

df four men no one of whom at that moment 
represented any great principle in antagonism 
to any of the others. Under no circumstances 
could the temptation to petty intrigue and mali- 
cious tale-bearing be greater than when votes 
were to be gained or lost solely by personal pre- 
dilection. In such a contest Adams was severely 
handicapped as against the showy prestige of 
the victorious soldier, the popularity of the 
brilliant orator, and the artfulness of the most 
dexterous political manager then in public life. 
Long prior to this stage Adams had established 
his rule of conduct in the campaign. So early as 
March, 1818, he was asked one day by Mr. Ev- 
erett whether he was " determined to do noth- 
ing with a view to promote his future election to 
the Presidency as the successor of Mr. Monroe," 
and he had replied that he " should do abso- 
lutely nothing." To this resolution he sturdily 
adhered. Not a breach of it was ever brought 
home to him, or indeed — save in one instance 
Boon to be noticed — seriously charged against 
him. There is not in the Diary the faintest 
trace of any act which might be so much as 
questionable or susceptible of defence only by 
casuistry. That he should have perpetuated 
evidence of any 'iagrant misdoing certainly 
sould not be expected ; but in a record kept 
\\i\\ the fulness and frankness of this Diary we 



166 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

should read between the lines and detect as it 
were in its general flavor, any taint of disingen- 
uousness or concealment ; we should discern 
moral unwholesomeness in its atmosphere. A 
thoughtless sentence would slip from the pen, 
a sophistical argument would be formulated 
for self -comfort, some acquaintance, interview, 
or arrangement would slide upon some un- 
guarded page indicative of undisclosed matters. 
But there is absolutely nothing of this sort. 
There is no tinge of bad color ; all is clear as 
crystal. Not an editor, nor a member of Con- 
gress, nor a local politician, not even a private 
individual, was intimidated or conciliated. On 
the contrary it often happened that those who 
made advances, at least sometimes stimulated 
by honest friendship, got rebuffs instead of 
encouragement. Even after the contest was 
known to have been transferred to the House 
of Representatives, when Washington was act- 
ually buzzing with the ceaseless whisperings of 
many secret conclaves, when the air was thick 
with rumors of what this one had said and that 
one had done, when, as Webster said, there 
were those who pretended to foretell how a rep- 
resentative would vote from the way in which 
he put on his hat, when of course stories of 
intrigue and corruption poisoned the honest 
oreeze, and when the streets seemed traversed 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 167 

Dnly by the busy tread of the go-betweens, the 
influential friends, the wire-pullers of the vari- 
ous contestants, — still amid all this noisy ex- 
citement and extreme temptation Mr. Adams 
held himself almost wholly aloof, wrapped in the 
cloak of his rigid integrity. His proud honesty 
was only not quite repellent; he sometimes al- 
lowed himself to answer questions courteously, 
and for a brief period held in check his strong 
natural propensity to give offence and make en- 
emies. This was the uttermost length that he 
could go towards political corruption. He be- 
came for a few weeks tolerably civil of speech, 
which after all was much for him to do and 
doubtless cost liim no insignificant effort. Since 
the days of Washington he alone presents the 
singular spectacle of a candidate for the Pres- 
idency deliberately taking the position, and in 
a long canipaign really never flinching from it: 
••' that, if the people wish me to be President I 
shall not refuse the office ; but I ask nothing 
from any man or from any body of men.'* 

Yet though he declined to be a courtier of 
popular favor he did not conceal from himself 
or from others the chagrin which he would feel 
\f there should be a manifestation of popular 
disfavor. Before the popular election he stated 
chat if it should go against him he should con- 
itrue it as the verdict of the people that they 



168 JOHN QUINCY ADAM8. 

were dissatisfied with liis services as a public 
man, and be should then retire to private life, 
no longer expecting or accepting public func- 
tions. He did not regard politics as a struggle 
in which, if he should now be beaten in one en- 
counter, he would return to another in the hope 
of better success in time. His notion was that 
the people had had ample opportunity during 
his incumbency in appointive offices to measure 
his ability and understand his character, and 
that the action of tlie people in electing or not 
electing him to the Presidency would be an in- 
dication that they were satisfied or dissatisfied 
with him. In the latter event he had nothing 
more to seek. Politics did not constitute a pro- 
fession or career in which he felt entitled to 
persist in seeking personal success as he might 
in the law or in business. Neither did the cir- 
cumstances of the time place him in the position 
of an advocate of any great principle which he 
might feel it his duty to represent and to fight 
for against any number of reverses. No such 
element was present at this time in national af- 
fairs. He construed the question before the 
people simjDly as concerning their opinion of 
him. He was much too proud to solicit and 
much too honest to scheme for a favorable ex- 
pression. It was a singular and a lofty attitude 
even if a trifle egotistical and not altogether 



JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 169 

animpeachable by argument. It conld not di- 
minish but rather it intensified liis interest in a 
contest whicli he chose to regard not simply as 
a struggle for a glittering prize but as a judg- 
ment upon the services which he had been for a 
lifetime rendering to his countrymen. 

How profoundly his whole nature was moved 
by the position in which, he stood is evident, 
often almost painfulh% in the Diary. Any at- 
tempt to conceal his feeling would be idle, and 
he makes no such attempt. He repeats all the 
rumors which come to his ears ; he tells the 
stories about Crawford's illness ; he records his 
own temptations ; he tries hard to nerve himself 
to bear defeat philosophically by constantly pre- 
dicting it; indeed, he photographs his wliole ex- 
istence for many weeks ; and however eagerly 
any person may aspire to the Presidency of the 
United States there is little in the picture to 
make one long for the preliminary position of 
candidate for that honor. It is too much like 
the stake and the flames through which the 
martyr passed to eternal beatitude, with the 
difference as against the candidate that he has 
by no means the martyr's certainty of reward. 

In those days of slow communication it w^as 
vot until December, 1824, that it became ever}^- 
wrhere known that there had been no election of 
I President by the people. When the electoral 



170 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

college met the result of tlieir ballots was as 

follows: — 

General Jackson led with . . 99 votes. 

Adams followed with .... 84 " 

Crawford had 41 " 

Clay had 37 " 

Total 261 votes. 

Mr. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by 
the handsome number of 182 votes. 

This condition of the election had been quite 
generally anticipated ; yet Mr. Adams's friends 
were not without some feeling of disappoint- 
ment. They had expected for him a fair sup- 
port at the South, whereas he in fact received 
seventy-seven out of his eighty-four votes from 
New York and New England ; Maryland gave 
him three, Louisiana gave him two, Delaware 
and Illinois gave him one each. 

When the electoral body was known to be 
reduced within the narrow limits of the House 
of Representatives, intrigue was rather stim- 
ulated than diminished by the definitenesa 
which became possible for it. Mr. Clay, who 
could not come before the House, found him- 
self transmuted from a candidate to a President- 
maker ; for it was admitted by all that his great 
personal influence in Congress would almost 
undoubtedly confer success upon the aspiran 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 171 

whom he should favor. Apparently his predi- 
lections were at least possibly in favor of Craw- 
ford; but Crawford's health had been for many 
months very bad ; he had had a severe paralytic 
stroke, and when acting as Secretary of the 
Treasury he had been unable to sign his name, 
BO that a stamp or die had been used; his 
speech was scarcely intelligible ; and when Mr. 
Clay visited him in the retirement in which his 
friends now kept him, the fact could not be 
concealed that he was for the time at least a 
wreck. Mr. Clay therefore had to decide for 
nimself, his followers, and the country whether 
Mr. Adams or General Jackson should be the 
next President of the United States. A cruel 
attempt was made in this crisis either to destroy 
his influence by blackening his character, or to 
intimidate him, through fear of losing his rep- 
utation for integrity, into voting for Jackson. 
An anonymous letter charged that the friends 
of Clay had hinted that, "like the Swiss, they 
would fight for those who pay best ; " that they 
had offered to elect Jackson if he would agree 
to make Clay Secretary of State, and that upon 
his indignant refusal to make such a bargain 
^he same proposition had been made to Mr. 
.Vdams, who was found less scrupulous and had 
promptly formed the ''unholy coalition." This 
<vretched publication, made a fsw days before 



172 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

the election in the House, was traced to a 
dull-witted Pennsylvania Representative by the 
name of Kremer, who had obviously been used 
as a tool by cleverer men. It met, however, the 
fate which seems happily always to attend such 
ignoble devices, and failed utterly of any more 
important effect than the utter annihilation of 
Kremer. In truth, General Jackson's fate had 
been sealed from the instant when it had fallen 
into Mr. Clay's hands. Clay had long since ex- 
pressed his unfavorable opinion of the " military 
hero," in terms too decisive to admit of expla- 
nation or retraction. Without much real liking 
for Adams, Clay at least disliked him much less 
than he did Jackson, and certainly his hones 
judgment favored the civilian far more than 
the disorderly soldier whose lawless career in 
Florida had been the topic of some of the 
great orator's fiercest invective. The arguments 
founded on personal fitness were strongly upon 
the side of Adams, and other arguments ad- 
vanced by the Jacksonians could hardly deceive 
Clay. They insisted that their candidate was 
the choice of the people so far as a superiority 
of preference had been indicated, and that there- 
fore he ouijht to be also the choice of the House 
Df Representatives. It would be against the 
jpirit of the Constitution and a thwarting of 
the popular will, they said, to prefer either di 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS VI 6 

his competitors. The fallacy of this retisoniiagj 
if reasoning it could be called, was glaring. iJt 
the spirit of the Constitution required thts 
House of Representatives not to elect from 
three candidates before it, but only to i'lduct 
an individual into the Presidency by a process 
which was in form voting but in fact only a 
simple certification that he had received the 
highest number of electoral votes, it would have 
been a plain and easy matter for the letter of 
the Constitution to have expressed this spirit, or 
indeed to have done away altogether with this 
machinery of a sham election. The Jackson 
men had only to state their argument in order 
to expose its hollowness ; for they said substan- 
tially that the Constitution established an elec- 
tion without an option ; that the electors were 
to vote for a person predestined by an earlier 
occurrence to receive their ballots. But it was 
not alone the Jacksonian logic which was at 
fault. The allegations of fact to which that 
logic was applied were almost certainly untrue. 
It was said that Jackson was the choice of a 
plurality of the people because he had received 
the largest electoral vote. But the figures of 
the popular election showed that Mr. Adams 
was a choice of the plurality of the people be- 
cause the Adams electors had received more 
v^otes than the Jackson electors throughout the 



174 JOH^ QUINCY ADAMS. 

country at large. Mr. Adams had had enor- 
mous majorities in New England : Genera' 
Jackson had narrowly carried the South ; the 
South also had the benefit of the artificial es- 
timafe based on its slave population. If polit- 
ical boundary lines were disregarded and the 
counting were simply of the number of persons 
throughout the country who had voted for Ad- 
ams electors and the number who had voted for 
Jackson electors, the preponderance of individ- 
ual voters was handsomely on Mr. Adams's 
Bide. This alone vindicated the constitutional 
provision, which left the House free to select 
and electa without preference, among the three 
names before it. Otherwise, indeed, what oc- 
casion was there for resorting to the House at 
all ? The candidate with the largest, electoral 
vote might as well have been declared to be 
chosen by the electors in the first instance. 
Plainly there was nothing in all this to perplex 
an intelligent man. 

The election took place in the House on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1825. Daniel Webster and John Ran- 
dolph were tellers, and they reported that there 
were " for John Quincy Adams, of Massachu- 
setts, thirteen votes ; for Andrew Jackson, of 
Tennessee, seven votes; for William H. Craw 
tord, of Georgia, four votes." Thereupon the 
ipeaker announced Mr. Adams to have beec 
elected President of the United States. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 175 

This end of an unusually exciting contest 
thus left Mr. Adams in possession of the field, 
Mr. Crawford the victim of an irretrievable de- 
feat, Mr. Clay still hopeful and aspiring for a 
future which had only disappointment in store 
for him, General Jackson enraged and revenge- 
ful. Not even Mr. Adams was fully satisfied. 
When the committee waited upon him to in- 
form him of the election, he referred in his re- 
ply to the peculiar state of things and said, 
" could my refusal to accept the trust thus del- 
egated to me give an opportunity to the people 
to form and to express with a nearer approach 
to unanimity the object of their preference, I 
should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of 
this eminent charge and to submit the decision 
of this momentous question again to their de- 
cision." That this singular and striking state- 
ment was made in good faith is highly probable. 
William H. Seward says that it was "unques- 
tionably uttered with great sincerity of heart." 
The test of action of course could not be ap 
plied, since the resignation of Mr. Adams would 
only have made Mr. Calhoun President, and 
could not have been so arranged as to bring 
about a new election. Otherwise the course of 
[lis argument would have been clear ; the fact 
ihat such action involved an enormous sacrifice 
would have been to his mina strong evidence 



176 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

that it was a duty ; and the temptation to per- 
form a duty, always strong with him, became 
ungovernable if the duty was exceptionally dis* 
agreeable. Under the circumstances, however, 
the only logical conclusion lay in the inaugura- 
tion, which took place in the customary simple 
fashion on March 4, 1825. Mr. Adams, we are 
told, was dressed in a black suit, of which all 
the materials were wholly of American man- 
ufacture. Prominent among those who after 
the ceremony hastened to greet him and to 
shake hands with him appeared General Jack- 
son. It was the last time that any friendly 
courtesy is recorded as having passed between 
the two. 

Many men eminent in public affairs have 
had their best years embittered by their failure 
to secure the glittering prize of the Presidency. 
Mr. Adams is perhaps the only person to whom 
the gaining of that proud distinction has been 
in some measure a cause of chagrin. This 
strange sentiment, which he undoubtedly felt, 
was due to the fact that what he had wished 
was not the office in and for itself, but the office 
as a symbol or token of the popular approval. 
He had held important and responsible public 
positions during substantially his whole active 
life : he was nearly sixty years old, and, as he 
iaid. he now for the first time had an oppor 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 177 

tiinity to find out in what esteem the people of 
the country lield him. What he wished was 
that tlie people should now express their decided 
satisfaction with him. This he hardly could be 
said to have obtained ; though to be the choice 
of a plurality in the nation and then to be se- 
lected bv so intellierent a body of constituents 
as the Representatives of the United States 
involved a peculiar sanction, yet nothing else 
could fully take the place of that national in- 
dorsement which he had coveted. When men 
publicly profess modest depreciation of their 
successes they are seldom believed ; but in his 
private Diary Mr. Adams wrote, on December 
31, 1825 : — 

" The year has been the most momentous of those 
hat have passed over my head, inasmuch as it has 
vitnessed my elevation at the age of fifty-eight to the 
Chief Magistracy of my country, to the summit of 
laudable or at least blameless worldly ambition ; not 
however in a manner satisfactory to pride or to just 
desire ; not by the unequivocal suffrages of a majority 
of the people ; with perhaps two thirds of the whole 
people adverse to the actual result." 

No President since Washington had evei 
come into office so entirely free from any man- 
ner of personal obligations or partisan entangle- 
ments, express or implied, as did Mr. Adams. 
Throughout the campaign he had not himself, 
12 



178 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

or by any agent, held out any manner of tacit 
inducement to any person whomsoever, con- 
tingent upon his election. He entered upon 
the Presidency under no indebtedness. He at 
once nominated his Cabinet as follows : Henry 
Clay, Secretary of State ; Richard Rush, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury ; James Barbour, Secre- 
tary of War ; Samuel L. Southard, Secretary 
of the Navy ; William Wirt, Attorney-General. 
The last two were renominations of the incum- 
bents under Monroe. The entire absence of 
chicanery or the use of influence in the distri- 
bution of ofiices is well illustrated by the fol- 
lowing incident. On the afternoon following 
the day of inauguration President Adams called 
upon Rufus King, whose term of service as sen- 
ator from New York had just expired, and who 
was preparing to leave Washington on the next 
day. In the course of a conversation concern- 
ing the nominations which had been sent to the 
Senate that forenoon the President said that 
he had nominated no minister to the English 
court, and 

" asked Mr. King if he would accept that mission. 
His first and immediate impulse was to decline it. He 
Baid that his determination to retire from the public 
service had been made up, and that this proposal waa 
utterly unexpected to him. Of this I was aware ; bu 
\ urged upon him a variety of considerations to i» 



JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 11 \^ 

duce his acceptance of it. ... I dwelt with earnest- 
ness upon all these motives, and apparently not with- 
out effect. He admitted the force of them, and finally 
promised fully to consider of the proposal before giv- 
ing me a deUnite answer." 

The result was an acceptance by Mr. King, 
his nomination by the President, and confirma- 
tion by the Senate. He was an old Federalist, 
to whom Mr. Adams owed no favors. With 
Buch directness and simplicity were the affairs 
of the Republic conducted. It is a quaint and 
pleasing scene from the period of our fore- 
fathers: the President, without discussion of 
" claims " to a distinguished and favorite post, 
actually selects for it a member of a hostile 
political organization, an old man retiring from 
public life ; then quietly walks over to his 
bouse, surprises him with the offer, and find- 
ing him reluctant urgently presses upon him 
arguments to induce his acceptance. But the 
whole business of office-seeking and office-dis- 
tributing, now so overshadowing, had no place 
under Mr. Adams. On March 5 he sent in sev- 
eral nominations which were nearly all of pre- 
vious incumbents. " Efforts had been made," 
he writes, " by some of the senators to obtain 
different nominations, and to introduce a prin- 
ciple of change or rotation in office at the ex- 
oiration of these commissions, which would 



180 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

make tlie Government a perpetual and unin- 
termitting scramble for office. A more perni- 
cious expedient could scarcely have been de- 
vised. ... I determined to renominate every 
person against whom there was no complaint 
which would have warranted his removal." A 
notable instance was that of Sterret, naval officer 
at New Orleans, " a noisy and clamorous reviler 
of the Administration," and lately busy in a 
project for insulting a Louisiana Representative 
who had voted for Mr. Adams. Secretary Clay 
was urgent for the removal of this man, plausi- 
bly saying that in the cases of persons holding 
office at the pleasure of the Administration the 
proper course was to avoid on the one hand po- 
litical persecution, and on the other any appear- 
ance of pusillanimity. Mr. Adams replied that 
if Sterret had been actually engaged in insulting 
a representative for the honest and independent 
discharge of duty, he would make the removal 
at once. But the design had not been consum- 
mated, and an intention never carried into effect 
would scarcely justify removal. 

" Besides," he added, " should I remove this man 
for this cause it must be upon some fixed principle, 
which would apply to others as well as to him. And 
ivhere was it possible to draw the line ? Of the cus 
kom-house officers throughout the Union, four fifths ii 
pJl probability were opposed to my election. C'raw 



JOHN aUlNCY ADAMS. 181 

ford, Secretary of the Treasury, had distributed these 
positions among his own supporters. I had been 
urged very earnestly and from various quarters to 
Bweep away my opponents and provide with their 
places for my friends. I can justify the refusal to 
adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consis- 
tency of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from 
this in one instance I shall be called upon by my 
friends to do the same in many. An invidious and 
inquisitorial scrutiny into the personal dispositions of 
public officers will creep through the whole Union, 
and the most selfish and sordid passions will be 
kindled into activity to distort the conduct and mis- 
represent the feelings of men whose places may be- 
come the prize of slander upon them." 

Mr. Clay was silenced, and Sterret retained 
his position, constituting thereafter only a some- 
what striking instance among many to show 
that nothing Avas to be lost by political oppo- 
sition to Mr. Adams. 

It was a cruel and discouraging fatality which 
brought about that a man so suicidally upright 
in the matter of patronage should find that the 
bitterest abuse which was heaped upon him was 
founded in an allegation of corruption of pre- 
cisely this nature. When before the election the 
ignoble George Kremer anonymously charged 
that Mr. Clay had sold his friends in the House 
of Representatives to Mr. Adams, " as the 
planter does his negroes or the farmer his team 



J.82 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

and liorses ;" when Mr. Clay promptly published 
the unknown writer as "a base and infamous 
calumniator, a dastard and a liar;" when next 
Kremer, being unmasked, avowed that he would 
make good his charges, but immediately after- 
ward actually refused to appear or testify before 
a Committee of the House instructed to inves- 
tigate the matter, it was supposed by all reason- 
able observers that the outrageous accusation 
was forever laid at rest. But this was by no 
means the case. The author of the slander had 
been personally discredited ; but the slander 
itself had not been destroyed. So shrewdly 
had its devisers who saw future usefulness in it 
managed the matter, that while Kremer slunk 
away into obscurity, the story which he had 
told remained an assertion denied, but not dis- 
proved, still open to be believed by suspicious 
or willing friends. With Adams President and 
Clay Secretary of State and General Jackson 
nominated, as he quickly was by the Tennes- 
see Legislature, as a candidate for the next 
Presidential term, the accusation was too plaus- 
ible and too tempting to be allowed to fall for- 
ever into dusty death ; rather it was speedily 
exhumed from its shallow burial and galvanized 
into new life. The partisans of Genei'al Jack 
Bon sent it to and fro throughout the land. No 
denial, no argument, could kill it. It began tc 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 183 

gain that sort of half belief which is certain to 
result from constant repetition ; since many 
minds are so constituted that trutn may be act- 
ually, as it were, manufactured for them by 
ceaseless iteration of statement, the many hear- 
ings gaining the character of evidence. 

It is long since all students of American his- 
tory, no matter what are their prejudices, or in 
whose interest their researches are prosecuted, 
bave branded this accusation as devoid of even 
the most shadowy basis of probability, and it 
now gains no more credit than would a story 
that Adams, Clay, and Jackson had conspired 
together to get Crawford out of their way by 
assassination, and that his paralysis was the 
result of the drugs and potions administered in 
performance of this foul plot. But for a while 
the rumor stalked abroad among the people, 
and many conspicuously bowed down before it 
because it served their purpose, and too many 
others also, it must be confessed, did likewise 
because they were deceived and really believed 
it. Even the legislature of Tennessee were not 
ashamed to give formal countenance to a cal- 
umny in support of which not a particle of evi- 
dence had ever been adduced. In a preamble 
to certain resolutions passed by this body upon 
this subject in 1827, it was recited that : " Mr. 
Adams desired the office of President; he went 



184 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

into the combination without it, and came out 
with it. Mr. Clay desired that of Secretary of 
State ; he went into the combination without it, 
and came out with it." No other charge could 
have wounded Mr. Adams so keenly; yet no 
course was open to him for refuting the slan- 
der. Mr. Clay, beside himself with a just rage, 
was better able to fight after the fashion of the 
day — if indeed he could only find somebody to 
fight. This he did at last in the person of John 
Randolpli of Roanoke, who adverted in one 
of his rambling and vituperative harangues to 
"the coalition of Blifil and Black George — the 
combination unheard of till then of the Puritan 
and the black-leg." This language led naturally 
enough to a challenge from Mr. Clay. The 
parties met ^ and exchanged shots without re- 
sult. The pistols were a second time loaded ; 
Clay fired ; Randolph fired into the air, walked 
up to Clay and without a word gave him his 
hand, which Clay had as it were perforce to 
take. There was no injury done save to the 
skirts of Randolph's long flannel coat which 
were pierced by one of the bullets. 

By way of revenge a duel may be effective if 
the wrong man does not happen to get shot ; 
but as evidence for intelligent men a bloodier 
ending than this would have been inconclusive 

1 Aprils, 18?.6 



JOHN QUINCI ADAMS. 185 

ft SO happened, however, that Jackson, altoi 
gether contrary to his own purpose, brought 
conclusive aid to President Adams and Secre- 
tary Clay. Whetlier the General ever had any 
real faith in the charge can only be surmised. 
Not improbably he did, for his mental workings 
were so peculiar in their violence and prejudice 
that apparently he always sincerely believed all 
persons who crossed his path to be knaves and 
villains of the blackest die. But certain it is 
that whether he credited the tale or not he soon 
began to devote himself with all his wonted 
vigor and pertinacity to its wide dissemination. 
Whether in so doing he was stupidly believing a 
lie, or intentionally spreading a known slander, 
is a problem upon whicli his friends and biog- 
raphers have exhausted much ingenuity with- 
out reaching any certain result. But sure it is 
that early in the year 1827 he was so far carried 
beyond the bounds of prudence as to declare 
before many persons that he had proof of the 
corrupt bargain. The assertion was promptly 
sent to the newspapers by a Mr. Carter Bev- 
erly, one of those who heard it made in the 
presence of several guests at the Hermitage. 
The name of Mr. Beverly, at first concealed, 
Boon became known, and he was of course 
lompelled to vouch in his principal. General 
lackson never deserted his adherents, whether 



186 JOHN QUINC Y ADAMS. 

their difficulties were noble or ignoble. He 
came gallantly to the aid of Mr. Beverly, and 
in a letter of June 6 declared that early in 
January, 1825, he had been visited by a " mem- 
ber of Congress of high respectability," who 
had told him of "a great intrigue going on " 
of which he ought to be informed. This gen- 
tleman had then proceeded to explain that Mr. 
Clay's friends were afraid that if General Jack- 
son should be elected President, " Mr. Adams 
would be continued Secretary of State (innu- 
endo, there would be no room for Kentucky) ; 
that if I would say, or permit any of my con- 
fidential friends to say, that in case I were 
elected President, Mr. Adams should not be 
continued Secretary of State, by a complete 
union of Mr. Clay and his friends they would 
put an end to the Presidential contest in one 
hour. And he was of opinion it was right to 
fight such intriguers with their own weapons." 
This scarcely disguised suggestion of bargain 
and corruption the General said that he repu- 
diated indignantly. Clay at once publicly chal- 
lenged Jackson to produce some evidence — to 
name the "respectable" member of Congress 
who appeared in the very unrespectable light 
of advising a candidate for the Presidency to 
emulate the alleged baseness of his opponents. 
Jackson thereupon uncovered James Buchanaj 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 187 

of Pennsylvania. Mr. Buchanan was a friend 
of tlie General, and to what point it may have 
been expected or hoped that his allegiance 
would carry him in support of his chief in this 
dire hour of extremity is matter only of in- 
ference. Fortunately, however, his fealty does 
not appear to have led him any great distance 
from the truth. He yielded to the prevailing 
desire to pass along the responsibility to some 
one else so far as to try to bring in a Mr. Mark- 
ley, who, however, never became more than a 
dumb fio-ure in the drama in which Buchanan 
was obliged to remain as the last important 
character. With obvious reluctance this gen- 
tleman then wrote that if General Jackson had 
placed any such construction as the foregoing 
upon an interview which had occurred between 
them, and which he recited at length, then the 
General had totally misconstrued — as was evi- 
dent enough — what he, Mr. Buchanan, had 
said. Indeed, that Jackson could have sup- 
posed him to entertain the sentiments imputed 
to him made Mr. Buchanan, as he said, '^ ex- 
ceedingly unhappy." In other words, there was 
no foundation whatsoever for the charge thus 
traced back to an originator who denied having 
originated it and said that it was aU a mistake. 
General Jackson was left \.o be defended from 
the accusation of deliberate falseb^od only by 



188 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

the charitable suggestion that he had been un- 
able to understand a perfectly simple conver- 
sation. Apparently Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay 
ought now to be abundantly satisfied, since not 
only were they amply vindicated, but their chief 
vilifier seemed to have been pierced by the 
point which he had sharpened for them. They 
had yet, however, to learn what vitality there is 
in falsehood. 

General Jackson and his friends had alone 
played any active part in this matter. Of these 
friends Mr. Kremer had written a letter of re- 
traction and apology which he was with diflfi- 
culty prevented from publishing ; Mr. Buchanan 
had denied all that he had been summoned to 
prove ; a few years later Mr. Beverly wrote and 
sent to Mr. Clay a contrite letter of regret. 
General Jackson alone remained for the rest 
of liis life unsilenced, obstinately reiterating a 
charge disproved by his own witnesses. But 
worse than all this, accumulations of evidence 
long and laboriously sought in many quarters 
have established a tolerably strong probability 
that advances of precisely the character alleged 
against Mr. Adams's friends were made to Mr, 
Clay by the most intimate personal associates 
of General Jackson. The discussion of this 
unpleasant suspicion would not, however, be an 
excusable episode in this short volume. The 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 189 

reader who is curious to pursue the matter fur- 
ther will find all the documentary evidence col- 
lected in its original shape in the first volume 
of Colton's Life of Clay, accompanied by an 
argument needlessly elaborate and surcharged 
with feeling yet in the main sufficiently fair 
and exhaustive. 

Mr. Benton says that " no President could 
have commenced his administration under more 
unfavorable auspices, or with less expectation 
of a popular career," than did Mr. Adams. 
From the first a strong minority in the House 
of Representatives was hostile to him, and the 
next election made this a majority. The first 
indication of the shape which the opposition 
was to take became visible in the vote in the 
Senate upon confirming Mr. Clay as Secretary 
of State. There were fourteen nays against 
twenty-seven yeas, and an inspection of the 
list showed that the South was beginning to 
consolidate more closely than heretofore as a 
Bectional force in politics. The formation of 
a Southern party distinctly organized in the 
interests of slavery, already apparent in the 
unanimity of the Southern Electoral Colleges 
against Mr. Adams, thus received further illus- 
tration; and the skilled eye of the President 
noted " the rallying of the South and of South- 
ern interests and prejudices to the men of tlie 



190 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

South." It is possible now to see plainly tliat 
Mr. Adams was really the first leader in the long 
crusade against slavery ; it was in opposition to 
him that the South became a political unit ; and 
a true instinct taught him the trend of Southern 
politics long before the Northern statesmen ap- 
prehended it, perhaps before even any Southern 
statesman had distinctly formulated it. This 
new development in the politics of the country 
soon received farther illustration. The first 
message which Mr. Adams had occasion to send 
to Congress gave another opportunity to his ill- 
wishers. Therein he stated that the invitation 
which had been extended to the United States 
to be represented at the Congress of Panama 
had been accepted, and that he should commis- 
sion ministers to attend the meeting. Neither 
in matter nor in manner did this proposition 
contain any just element of offence. It was 
customary for the Executive to initiate new 
missions simply by the nomination of envoys to 
fill them ; and in such case the Senate, if it did 
not think the suggested mission desirable could 
simply decline to confirm the nomination upon 
that ground. An example of this has been al- 
-eady seen in the two nominations of Mr. Ad 
ims himself to the Court of Russia in the Pres- 
idency of Mr. Madison. But now vehement 
assaults were made upon the President, alikf 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. ^ 191 

ji the Senate and in the House, on the utterly 
absurd ground that be bad transcended bis 
powers. Incredible, too, as it may seem at this 
day it was actually maintained tbat tbere was 
no occasion wbatsoever for the United States 
to desire representation at such a gathering. 
Prolonged and bitter was the opposition which 
the Administration was compelled to encounter 
in a measure to wbich there so obviously ought 
to have been instant assent if considered solely 
upon its intrinsic merits, but upon wbich never- 
theless the discussion actually overshadowed 
all other questions which arose during the ses- 
sion. The President had the good fortune to 
find the powerful aid of Mr. Webster enlisted 
in his behalf, and ultimately he prevailed; but 
it was of ill augury at this early date to see 
that personal hostility was so widespread and 
Bo rancorous that it could make such a pro- 
longed and desperate resistance with only the 
faintest pretext of right as a basis for its action. 
Yet a great and fundamental cause of the feel- 
ing manifested lay hidden away beneath the 
surface in the instinctive antipathy of the slave- 
holders to ]\Ir. Adams and all his thoughts, 
\iis ways, and his doings. For izzto this ques- 
tion of countenancing the Panama Congress, 
♦lavery and " the South " entered and imported 
into a portion of the opposition a certain ele- 



192 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

ment of reasonableness and propriety in a po- 
litical sense. When we see tlie Southern states- 
men banded against President Adams in these 
debates, as we know the future which was hid- 
den from them, it almost makes us believe that 
their vindictiveness was justified by an instinct- 
ive forecasting of his character and his mission 
in life, and that without knowing it they al- 
ready felt the influence of the acts which he was 
yet to do against them. For the South, with- 
out present dread of an abolition movement, 
yet hated this Panama Congress with a con- 
temptuous loathing not alone because the South 
American States had freed all slaves within 
their limits, but because there was actually a 
fair chance that Hayti would be admitted to 
representation at the sessions as a sovereign 
state. That the President of the United States 
should propose to send white citizens of that 
country to sit cheek by jowl on terms of offi- 
cial equality with the revolted blacks of Hayti, 
fired the Southern heart with rage inexpres- 
sible. The proposition was a further infusion 
of cement to aid in the Southern consolidation 
go rapidly going forward, and was substantially 
the beginning of the sense of personal aliena- 
tion henceforth to grow steadily more bitter on 
the part of the slaveholders towards Mr. Ad 
ftms. Without designing it he had struck thi 



JOHN UUINCY ADAMS. 193 

first blow in a fight wMcli was to absorb hia 
energies for the rest of his life. 

Such evil forebodings as might too easily be 
drawn from the course of this debate were soon 
and amply fulfilled. The opposition increased 
rapidly until when Congress came together in 
December, 1827, it had attained overshadowing 
proportions. Not only was a member of that 
party elected Speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives, but a decided majority of both Houses 
of Congress was arrayed against the Adminis- 
tration — "a state of things which had never 
before occurred under the Government of the 
United States." All the committees too were 
composed of four opposition and only three Ad- 
ministration members. With more exciting 
issues this relationship of the executive and leg- 
islative departments might have resulted in 
dangerous collisions ; but in this season of po- 
litical quietude it only made the position of the 
President extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Van 
Buren soon became recognized as the formid- 
able leader and organizer of the Jackson forces. 
His capacity as a political strategist was so far 
in advance of that of any other man of those 
times that it might have secured success even 
had he been encountered by tactics similar to 
his own. But since on the contrary he had only 
to meet straightforward simplicity it was soon 

13 



194 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

apparent that he would have everything hia 
own way. It was disciplined troops against the 
militia of honest merchants and farmers; and 
the result was not to be doubted. Mr. Adams 
and his friends were fond of comparing Van 
Buren with Aaron Burr, though predicting that 
he would be too shrewd to repeat Burr's blun- 
ders. From the beginning they declined to 
meet with his own weapons a man whom they 
BO contemned. It was about this time that a 
new nomenclature of parties was introduced 
into our politics. The administrationists called 
themselves National Republicans, a name which 
in a few years was changed for that of Whigs, 
while the opposition or Jacksonians were known 
as Democrats, a title which has been ever since 
retained by the same party. 

The story of Mr. Adams's Administration will 
detain the historian, and even the biographer, 
»nly a very short time. Not an event occurred 
during those four years which appears of any 
especial moment. Our foreign relations were 
all pacific ; and no grave crisis or great issue was 
developed in domestic affairs. It. was a period 
Df tranquillity, in wliich the nation advanced 
rapidly in prosperity. For many years dulness 
had reigned in business, but returning activity 
was encouraged by the policy of the new Gov 
3rnment, and upon all sides various industriei 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 195 

oecame active and thriving. So far as the rule 
of Mr. Adams was marked by any distinguish- 
ing characteristic, it was by a care for the ma- 
terial welfare of the people. More commercial 
treaties were negotiated during his Administra- 
tion than in the thirty-six years preceding his 
inaugruration. He was a strenuous advocate of 
internal improvements, and happily the condi- 
tion of the national finances enabled the Gov- 
ernment to embark in enterprises of this kind. 
He suggested many more than were under- 
taken, but not perhaps more than it would have 
been quite possible to carry out. He was al- 
ways chary of making a show of himself before 
the people for the sake of gaining popularity. 
When invited to attend the annual exhibition 
of the Maryland Agricultural Society, shortly 
after his inauguration, he declined, and wrote 
in his Diary: ^' To gratify this wish I must 
give four days of my time, no trifle of expense, 
and set a precedent for being claimed as an 
article of exhibition at all the cattle-shows 
throughout the Union." Other gatherings 
would prefer equally reasonable demands, in 
responding to which " some duty must be neg- 
lected." But the opening of the Chesapeake 
ind Ohio Canal was an event sufficiently mo- 
mentous and national in its character to justify 
the President's attendance. He was requested 



196 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

in the presence of a great concourse of people 
^o dig the first shovelful of earth and to make 
a brief address. The speech-making was easy ; 
but when the digging was to be done he en- 
countered some unexpected obstacle and the 
soil did not yield to his repeated efforts. Not 
to be defeated, however, he stripped off his 
coat, went to work in earnest with the spade 
and raised the earth successfully. Naturally 
Buch readiness was hailed with loud applause 
and pleased the great crowd who saw it. But 
in Mr. Adams's career it was an exceptional oc- 
currence that enabled him to conciliate a mo- 
mentary popularity ; it was seldom that he en- 
joyed or used an opportunity of gaining the 
cheap admiration or shallow friendship of the 
multitude. 

At least one moral to be drawn from the 
story of Mr. Adams's Presidency perhaps de- 
serves rather to be called an immoral., and cer- 
tainly furnishes unwelcome support to those 
persons who believe that conscientiousness is 
out of place in politics. It has been said that 
:iO sooner was General Jackson fairly defeated 
t:ian he was again before the people as a can- 
didate for the next election. An opposition to 
the new Administration was in process of for- 
mation actually before there had been time for 
chat Administration to declare, much less tc 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 197 

Barry out, any policy or even any measure. The 
opposition was therefore not one of principle; 
it was not dislike of anything done or to be 
done; it did not pretend to have a purpose of 
saving the people from blunders or of offering 
them greater advantages. It was simply an op- 
position, or more properly an hostility, to the 
President and his Cabinet, and was conducted 
by persons who wished in as short a time as 
possible themselves to control and fill those po- 
sitions. The sole ground upon which these op- 
ponents stood was, that they would ratlier have 
General Jackson at the head of affairs than Mr. 
Adams. The issue was purely personal ; it was 
BO when the opposition first developed, and it 
remained so until that opposition triumphed. 

Under no circumstances can it be more ex- 
cusable for an elective magistrate to seek per- 
sonal good-wdll towards himself than when his 
rival seeks to supplant him simply on the basis 
of enjoying a greater measure of such good- will. 
Had any important question of policy been di- 
viding the people it would have been easy for a 
man of less moral courage and independence than 
belonged to Mr. Adams to select the side which 
he thoucrht risjlit and to await the outcome at 
least with constancy. But the only real ques- 
don raised was this : will Mr. Adams or Gen- 
eral Jackson — two individuals representing as 



198 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

yet no antagonistic policies — be preferred by 
the greater number of voters in 1829 ? If, how- 
ever, there v^as no great apparent issue open be- 
tween these two men, at least there was a very 
wide difference between their characters, a point 
of some consequence in a wholly personal com- 
petition. It is easy enough now to see how this 
gaping difference displayed itself from the be- 
ginning, and how the advantage for winning was 
throughout wholly on the side of Jackson. The 
course to be pursued by Mr. Adams in order to 
insure victory was obvious enough ; being sim- 
ply to secure the largest following and most 
efficient support possible. The arts by which 
these objects were to be attained were not ob- 
scure nor beyond his power. If he wished a 
second term, as beyond question he did, two 
methods were of certain utility. He should 
make the support of his Administration a source 
of profit to the supporters ; and he should con- 
ciliate good-will by every means that offered. 
To the former end what more efficient means 
could be devised than a body of office-holders 
owing their positions to his appointment and 
likely to have the same term of office as him- 
self? His neglect to create such a corps of 
staunch supporters cannot be explained on the 
ground that so plain a scheme of perpetuating 
power had not then been devised in the Repub 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 199 

lie. Mr. Jefferson bad practised it, to an extent 
which now seems moderate, but which had been 
Bufficiently extensive to deprive any successor 
of the honor of novelty in originating it. The 
times were ripe for it, and the nation would not 
have revolted at it, as was made apparent when 
General Jackson, succeeding Mr. Adams, at 
once carried out the svstem with a thorough ness 
that has never been surpassed, and with a suc- 
cess in achieving results so great that almost 
no politician has since failed to have recourse 
to the same practice. Suggestions and temp- 
tations, neither of which were wanting, were 
however alike thrown away upon Mr. Adams. 
Friendship or hostility to the President were 
the only two matters which were sure to have 
no effect whatsoever upon the fate of an incum- 
bent or an aspirant. Scarcely any removals 
were made during his Administration, and every 
Vne of the few was based solely upon a proved 
unfitness of the official. As a consequence very 
few new appointments were made, and in every 
instance the appointee was, or was believed to 
be, the fittest man without regard to his political 
bias. This entire elimination of the question of 
party allegiance from every department of the 
public service was not a specious protestation, 
out an undeniable fact at which friends grum 
bled bitterly, and upon which foes counted often 



200 JOHN aUlNCY ADAMS. 

with an ungenerous but always with an implicit 
reliance. It was well known, for example, thai 
in the Customs Department there were many 
more avowed opponents than supporters of the 
Administration. What was to be thought, the 
latter angrily asked, of a President who refused 
to make any distinction between the sheep and 
the goats ? But while Mr. Adams, unmoved by 
argument, anger, or entreaty, thus alienated 
many and discouraged all, every one was made 
acquainted with the antipodal principles of his 
rival. The consequence was inevitable ; many 
abandoned Adams from sheer irritation ; multi- 
tudes became cool and indifferent concerning 
him ; the great number of those whose political 
faith was so weak as to be at the ready com- 
mand of their own interests, or the interests of 
a friend or relative, yielded to a pressure against 
which no counteracting force was employed. In 
a word, no one who had not a strong and inde- 
pendent personal conviction in behalf of Mr. Ad- 
ams found the slightest inducement to belong to 
his party. It did not require much political sa- 
gacity to see that in quiet times, with no great 
issue visibly at stake, a following thus composed 
could not include a majority of the nation. It ia 
true that in fact there was opening an issue aa 
great as has ever been presented to the Ameri- 
ean people — an issue between government con 



JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. 201 

ducted with a sole view to efficiency and honesty, 
and government conducted very largely, if not 
exclusively, with a view to individual and party 
ascendancy. The new system afterward inaug- 
urated by General Jackson, directly opposite to 
that of Mr. Adams and presenting a contrast to 
it as wide as is to be found in history, makes 
this fact glaringly plain to us. But during the 
years of Mr. Adams's Administration it was 
dimly perceived only by a few. Only one side 
of the shield had then been shown. The people 
did not appreciate that Adams and Jackson 
were representatives of two conflicting prin- 
ciples of administration which went to the very 
basis of our system of government. Had the 
issue been as apparent and as well understood 
then as it is now, in retrospect, the decision of 
the nation might have been different. But un- 
fortunately the voters only beheld two individ- 
uals pitted against each other for the popular 
Buffrage, of whom one, a brilliant soldier, would 
stand by and reward his friends, and the other, 
an uninteresting civilian, ignored all distinction 
between friend and foe. 

It was not alone in the refusal to use patron- 
Rge that Mr. Adams's rigid conscientiousness 
ihowed itself. He was equally obstinate in de- 
slining ever to stretch a point however slightly 
»n order to win the favor ot any body of the 



202 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

people whether large or small. He was warned 
that his extensive schemes for internal improve- 
ment would alienate especially the important 
State of Virginia. He coald not of course be 
expected to change his policy out of respect 
to Virginian prejudices; but he was advised to 
mitigate liis expression of that policy, and to 
some extent it was open to him to do so. But 
he would not; his utterances went the full 
length of his opinions, and he persistently urged 
upon Congress many plans which he approved, 
but which he could not have the faintest hopes 
of seeing adopted. The consequence was that 
he displeased Virginia. He notes the fact in 
the Diary in the tone of one who endures per- 
secution for righteousness' sake, arid who means 
to be very stubborn in his righteousness. Again 
it was suggested to him to embody in one of his 
messages " something soothing for South Caro- 
lina." But there stood upon the statute books 
of South Carolina an unconstitutional law which 
had greatly embarrassed the national govern- 
ment, and which that rebellious little State with 
characteristic contumaciousness would not re- 
peal. Under such circumstances, said Mr. Ad- 
ams, I have no " soothing " words for South 
Carolina. 

It was not alone by what he did and by what 
ae would not do that Mr. Adams toiled to in 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 203 

Bure the election of General Jackson far more 
Bedulously and efficiently than did the General 
himself or any of his partisans. In most cases 
it was probably the manner quite as much as 
the act which made Mr. Adams unpopular. In 
his anxiety to be upright he was undoubtedly 
prone to be needlessly disagreeable. His un- 
compromising temper put on an ungracious as- 
pect. His conscientiousness wore the appear- 
ance of offensiveness. The Puritanism in his 
character was strongly tinged with that old New 
England notion that whatever is disagreeable is 
probably right, and that a painful refusal would 
lose half its merit in being expressed courteously ; 
that a right action should never be done in a 
pleasing way; not only that no pill should be 
sugar-coated, but that the bitterest ingredient 
should be placed on the outside. In repudiat- 
ing attractive vices the Puritans had rejected 
also those amenities which might have decently 
concealed or even mildly decorated the forbid- 
ding angularities of a naked Virtue which cer- 
tainly did not imitate the form of any goddess 
who had ever before attracted followers. Mr. 
Adams was a complete and thoi'Dugh Puritan, 
wonderfully little modified by times and circum- 
stances. The ordinary arts of propitiation 
Hrould have appeared to him only a feeble and 
iiluted form of dishonesty ; while suavity and 



204 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

graciousness of demeanor would have seemed a& 
unbecoming to this rigid official as love-making 
or wine-bibbing seem to a strait-laced parson. 
It was inevitable, therefore, that he should never 
avert by his words any ill-will naturally caused 
by his acts ; that he should never soothe disap- 
pointment, or attract calculating selfishness. He 
was an adept in alienation, a novice in concilia- 
tion. His magnetism was negative. He made 
few friends ; and had no interested following 
whatsoever. No one was enthusiastic on his be- 
half ; no band worked for him with the ardor of 
personal devotion. His party was composed of 
those who had sufficient intelligence to appre- 
ciate his integrity and sufficient honesty to ad- 
mire it. These persons respected him, and when 
election day came they would vote for him ; but 
they did not canvas zealously in his behalf, nor 
do such service for him as a verv different kind 

ft/ 

of feeling induced the Jackson men to do for 
their candidate.^ The fervid laborers in pol- 
itics left Mr. Adams alone in his chilling re- 

1 Mr. Mills, in writing of Mr. Adams's inauguration, ex- 
pressed well what many felt, " This same President of onra 
is a man that I cail never court nor be on very familiar terms 
with. There is a cold, repulsive atmosphere about him that ia 
too chilling for my respiration, and I shall certainly keep at a 
distance from its influence. I wish him God-speed in his Ad 
miuiritration, and am heartily disposed to lend him my feebli 
fc! I w'lenever he may need it in a correct course ; but he can 



JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 205 

spectability, and went over to a camp where ali 
scruples were consumed in tlie glowing heat of 
a campaign conducted upon the single and sim- 
ple principle of securing victory. 

Mr. Adams's relations with the members of 
his Cabinet were friendly throughout his term. 
Men of their character and ability, brought 
into daily contact with him, could not fail to 
appreciate and admire the purity of his motives 
and the patriotism of his conduct ; nor was he 
wanting in a measure of consideration and def- 
erence towards them perhaps somewhat greater 
than might have been expected from him, some- 
times even carried to the point of yielding his 
opinion in matters of consequence. It was his 

not expect me to become his warm and devoted partisan." A 
like sentiment was expressed also much more vigorously by 
Ezekiel Webster to Daniel Webster, in a letter of February 15, 
1829. The writer there attributes the defeat of Mr. Adams 
to personal di.sHke to him. People, he said, "always sup- 
ported his cause from a cold sense of duty," and "we soon sat- 
isfy ourselves that we have discharged our duty to the cause 
of any man when we do not entertain for him one personal 
kind feeling, nor cannot unless we disembowel ourselves like a 
trussed turkey of all that is human nature within us." With 
a candidate "of popular character, like Mr. Clay," the result 
would have been different. " The measures of his [Adams's] 
Administration were just and wise and every honest man 
ehoild have supported them, but many nonest men did not foi 
»he reason I have mentioned ' — Webster's Private Corre 
tpondence, vol. i. p. 469. 



206 JOUN QUINCY ADAMS. 

wish that the unity of the body should remain 
unbroken during his four years of office, and 
the wish was very nearly realized. Unfortu- 
nately, however, in his last year it became neces- 
sary for him to fill the mission to EngUmd, and 
Governor Barbour was extremely anxious for 
the place. It was already apparent that the 
coming election was likely to result in the suc- 
cession of Jackson, and Mr. Adams notes that 
Barbour's extreme desire to receive the appoint- 
ment was due to his wish to find a good harbor 
ere the approaching storm should burst. The 
remark was made without anger, in the tone of 
a man who had seen enough of the world not to 
expect too much from any of his fellow-men ; 
and the appointment was made, somewhat to 
the chagrin of Webster and Rush, either one of 
whom would have gladly accepted it. The 
vacancy thus caused, the only one which arose 
during his term, was filled by General Peter B. 
Porter, a gentleman whom Mr. Adams selected 
not as his own choice, but out of respect to the 
wishes of the Cabinet, and in order to " termi- 
nate the Administration in harmony with itself." 
The only seriously unpleasant occurrence was 
the treachery of Postmaster-General McLean, 
who saw fit to profess extreme devotion to Mr, 
Adams while secretly aiding General Jackson 
His perfidy was not undetected, and great pres 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 207 

Bure was hronght to bear on tlie President to 
remove Lira. Mr. Adams, however, refused to 
do so, and McLean had the satisfaction of step- 
ping from his post under Mr. Adams into a 
judgeship conferred by General Jackson, hav- 
ing shown his impartiality and judicial turn of 
mind, it is to be supposed, by declaring his 
warm allegiance to each master in turn. 

The picture of President Adams's daily life 
is striking in its simplicity and its laboriousness. 
This chief magistrate of a great nation was 
wont to rise before daybreak, often at four or 
five o'clock even in winter, not unfrequently to 
build and light his own fire, and to work hard 
for hours when most persons in busy life were 
still comfortably slumbering. The forenoon and 
afternoon he devoted to public affairs, and often 
he complains that the unbroken stream of vis- 
itors gives him little opportunity for hard or 
continuous labor. Such work he was compelled 
to do chiefly in the evening ; and he did not al- 
ways make up for early hours of rising by a 
correspondingly early bed-time ; thougli some- 
times in the summer we find him going to bed 
between eight and nine o'clock, an hour which 
Drobably few Presidents have keot since then. 
He strove to care for his health by daiVy exer- 
ijise. In the morning he swam in the Potomac, 
•ften for a long time ; and more than once he 



208 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 

encountered no small risk in this pastime. Dur 
ing the latter part of his Presidential term he 
tried riding on horseback. At times when the 
weather compelled him to walk, and business 
was pressing, he used to get his daily modicum 
of fresh air before the sun was up. A life of 
this kind with more of hardship than of relax- 
ation in it was ill fitted to sustain in robust 
health a man sixty years of age, and it is not 
surprising that Mr. Adams often complained of 
feeling ill, dejected, and weary. Yet he never 
spared himself, nor apparently thought his hab- 
its too severe, and actually toward the close of 
his term he spoke of his trying dail}^ routine as 
constituting a very agreeable life. He usually 
began the day by reading "two or three chap- 
ters in the Bible with Scott's and Hewlett's Com- 
mentaries," being always a profoundly religious 
man of the old-fashioned school then prevalent 
in New England. 

It could hardly have added to the meagre 
comforts of such a life to be threatened with 
assassination. Yet this danger was thrust upon 
Mr. Adams's attention upon one occasion at 
least under circumstances which gave to it a 
very serious aspect. The tranquillity with which 
be went through the affair showed that his 
physical courage was as imperturbable as hia 
moral. The risk was protracted throughout s 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 209 

Considerable period, but he never let it disturb 
the even tenor of his daily behavior or warp 
his actions in the slightest degree, save only 
that when he was twice or thrice brought face 
to face with the intending assassin he treated 
the fellow with somewhat more curt brusque- 
ness than was his wont. But when the danger 
was over he bore his would-be murderer no 
malice, and long afterward actually did him a 
kindly service. 

Few men in public life have been subjected to 
trials of temper so severe as vexed Mr. Adams 
during his Presidential term. To play an in- 
tensely exciting game strictly in accordance with 
rigid moral rules of the player's own arbitrary 
enforcement, and which are utterly repudiated 
by a less scrupulous antagonist, can hardly 
tend to promote contentment and amiability. 
Neither are slanders and falsehoods mollifying 
applications to a statesman inspired with an up- 
right and noble ambition. Mr. Adams bore such 
assaults ranging from the charge of having cor- 
ruptly bought the Presidency down to that of 
being a Freemason with such grim stoicism as 
he could command. The disappearance and 
probable assassination of Morgan at this time 
ed to a strong feeling throughout the country 

against Freemasonry, and the Jackson men at 
u 



210 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

once proclaimed abroad tliat Adams was one of 
tlie brotherhood and offered, if he should deny 
it, to produce the records of the lodge to which 
he belonged. The allegation was false ; he was 
not a Mason, and his friends urged him to say 
so publicly ; but he replied bitterly that hia 
denial would probably at once be met by a com- 
plete set of forged records of a fictitious lodge, 
and the people would not know whom to be- 
lieve. Next he was said to have bargained for 
the support of Daniel Webster, by promising 
to distribute offices to Federalists. This accusa- 
tion was a cruel perversion of his very virtues ; 
for its only foundation lay in the fact that in 
the venturesome but honorable attempt to be 
President of a nation rather than of a party, 
he had in some instances given offices to old 
Federalists, certainly with no hope or possibil- 
ity of reconciling to himself the almost useless 
wreck of that now powerless and shrunken 
party, one of whose liveliest traditions was 
hatred of him. Stories were even set afloat 
that some of his accounts, since he had been in 
the public service, were incorrect. But the 
most extraordinary and ridiculous tale of all 
was that during his residence in Russia he had 
prostituted a beautiful American girl, whom he 
then had in his service, in order '* to seduce th« 
passions of the Emperor Alexander and swaj 
him to political purposes." 



JOHN QUINCY ADA.\f8. 211 

These and other like provocations were not 
only discouraging but very irritating, and Mr. 
Adams was not of that careless disposition 
which is little affected by unjust accusation. 
On the contrary he was greatly incensed by 
Buch treatment, and though he made the most 
stern and persistent effort to endure an inev- 
itable trial with a patience born of philosophy, 
since indifference was not at his command, yet 
he could not refrain from the expression of his 
sentiments in his secret communings. Occa- 
sionally he allowed his wrath to explode with 
harmless violence between the covers of the 
Diary, and doubtless he found relief while he 
discharged his fierce diatribes on these private 
sheets. His vituperative power was great, and 
some specimens of it may not come amiss in a 
sketch of the man. The senators who did not 
call upon him he regarded as of "rancorous 
spirit." He spoke of the falsehoods and misrep- 
esentations which " the skunks of party slander 
. have been . . . squirting round the House 
vt Representatives, thence to issue and perfume 
the atmosphere of the Union." His most in- 
tense hatred and vehement denunciation were 
reserved for John Randolpn, whom he thought 
an abomination too odious and despicable to be 
described in words, " the image and superscrip- 
tion of a great man stamped upon base metal, ' 



212 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

*' The besotted violence " of Randolph, he said, 
has deprived him of " all right to personal 
sivility from me ; " and certainly this excom- 
munication from courtesy was made complete 
and effective. He speaks again of the same 
victim as a '' frequenter of gin lane and beer 
alley." He indignantly charges that Calhoun, 
as Speaker, permitted Randolph " in speeches of 
ten hours lonsf to drink himself drunk with 
bottled porter, and in raving balderdash of the 
meridian of Wapping to revile the absent and 
the present, the living and the dead." This, he 
says, was " tolerated by Calhoun, because Ran- 
dolph's ribaldry was all pointed against the 
Administration, especially against Mr. Clay and 
me." Again he writes of Randolph: "The 
rancor of this man's soul against me is that 
which sustains his life : the agony of fhip] 
envy and hatred of me, and the hope of effect- 
ing my downfall, are [his] chief remaining 
sources of vitality. The issue of the Presiden- 
tial election will kill [him] by the gratification 
of [his] revenge." So it was also with W. B. 
Giles of Virginia. But Giles's abuse was easier 
to bear since it had been poured in torrenta 
upon every reputable man, from Washington 
downwards, who had been prominent in public 
affairs since the adoption of the Constitution 
BO that Giles's memory is now preserved fro» 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 2iB 

dblivion solely by the connection which he es- 
tablished with the great and honorable states- 
men of the Republic by a course of ceaseless 
attacks upon tbem. Some of the foregoing ex- 
pressions of Mr. Adams may be open to objec- 
tion on the score of good taste ; but the provo- 
cation was extreme ; public retaliation he would 
not practise, and wrath must sometimes burst 
forth in language which was not so unusual in 
that day as it is at present. It is an unques- 
tionable fact, of which the credit to Mr. Adams 
can hardly be exaggerated, that he never in 
any single instance found an excuse for an un- 
worthy act on his own part in the fact that com- 
petitors or adversaries were resorting to such ex- 
pedients. 

The election of 1828 gave 178 votes for Jack- 
son and only 83 for Adams. Calhoun was con- 
tinued as Vice-President by 171 votes, showing 
plainly enough that even yet there wei^ not 
two political parties, in any customary or proper 
sense of the phrase. The victory of Jackson had 
been foreseen by every one. What had been so 
generally anticipated could not take Mr. Adams 
by surprise ; yet it was iile for him to seek to 
i'onceal his disappointment that an Administra- 
tion which he hal conducted with his best abil- 
ity and with thorough oonsuientiousness should 



214 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

riot have seemed to the people worthy of con- 
tinuance for another term. Little suspecting 
what the future had in store for bim, he felt that 
his public career had culminated and probably 
had closed forever, and that if it had not closed 
exactly in disgrace, yet at least it could not be 
regarded as ending gloriously or even satisfac- 
torily. But he summoned all his philosophy and 
fortitude to his aid ; he fell back upon his clear 
conscience and comported himself with dignity, 
showing all reasonable courtesy to his successor 
and only perhaps seeming a little deficient in 
filial piety in presenting so striking a contrast 
to the shameful conduct of his father in a like 
crucial hour. His retirement brought to a close 
a list of Presidents who deserved to be called 
statesmen in the highest sense of that term, hon- 
orable men, pure patriots, and, with perhaps one 
exception, all of the first order of ability in pub 
lie affairs. It is necessary to come far down to- 
wards this day before a worthy successor of those 
great men is met with in the list. Dr. Von Hoist, 
by far the ablest writer who lias yet dealt with 
American history, says: "In the person of Ad- 
ams the last statesman who was to occupy it 
tor a long time left the White House." Gen- 
iral Jackson, the candidate of the populace, an(? 
fche representative hero of the ignorant masses, 
instituted a new system of administering th# 



JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 21 5 

Grovernment in which personal interests became 
the most important element, and that organiza- 
tion and strategy weie developed which have 
since become known and infamous under the 
name of the " political machine." 

While Mr. Adams bore his defeat like a phil- 
osopher, he felt secretly very depressed and un- 
happy by reason of it. He speaks of it as leav- 
ing his " character and reputation a wreck," 
and says that the " sun of his political life sets 
in the deepest gloom." On January 1, 1829, 
he writes : " The year begins in gloom. My 
wife had a sleepless and painful night. The 
dawn was overcast, and as I began to write my 
shaded lamp went out, self-extinguished. It 
was only for lack of oil, and the notice of so 
trivial an incident may serve but to mark the 
present temper of my mind." It is painful to 
behold a man of his vigor, activity, and courage 
thus prostrated. Again he writes : — 

" Three clays more and I shall be restored to pri- 
vate life, and left to an old age of retirement though 
certainly not of repose. I go into it with a combina- 
tion of parties and public men against my character 
and reputation, such as I believe never before was 
exhibited against any man since this Union existed. 
Posterity will scarcely believe it, but so it is, that this 
combination against me has been termed and is now 
nulting in triumph over me, for the devotion of mj 



216 JOHN QUINCY ADAyfS. 

life and of all the faculties of my soul to the Union, 
and to the improvement, physical, moral, and intel- 
lectual of my country." 

Mt-lancholv words these to be written bv an 
old man who bad worked so hard and been so 
honest, and whose ambition had been of the 
kind that ennobles him who feels it I Could the 
curtain of the future have been lifted but for 
a moment what relief would the glimpse have 
brought to his crushed and wearied spirit. But 
though coming events may cast shadows before 
them, thev far less often send bricrht ravs in ad- 
"vance. So he now resolved '-to go into the 
deepest retirement and withdraw from all con- 
nection with public affairs." Yet it was with 
regret that he foretold this fate, and he looked 
forward with solicitude to the effect which such 
a mode of life, newly entered upon at his age, 
would have upon his mind and character. He 
hopes rather than dares to predict that he will 
be provided '• with useful and profitable occupa- 
tion, encracrincr so much of his thoughts and feel- 
ings that his mind may not be left to corrode 
itself." 

His return to Quincy held out the less prom- 
ise of comfort, because the old chasm between 
him and the Federalist gentlemen of Boston had 
been lately reopened. Certain malicious new* 
paper paragraphs, born of the mischievous spiri; 



JunX QUINCT ADAMS. 217 

Df the wretched Giles, had recently set afloat 
some stories designed seriously to injure ]\Ir. Ad- 
ams. These were, substantially, that in 1808—9 
he had been convinced that some amonc: the 
leaders of the Federalist party in Xew Eng- 
land were entertaining a project for separation 
from the Union, that he had feared that this 
event would be promoted by the embargo, that 
he foresaw that the seceding portion would in- 
evitably be compelled into some sort of alliance 
with Great Britain, that he suspected negotia- 
tions to this end to have been alreadv set on 
foot, that he thereupon gave privately some 
more or less distinct intimations of these no- 
tions of his to sundry prominent Republicans, 
and even to President Jefferson. These tales, 
much distorted from the truth and exacrcrerated 
as usual, led to the publication of an open letter, 
in November, 1828, addressed by thirteen Fed- 
eralists of note in Massachusetts to John Quincy 
Adams, demanding names and specitieations and 
the production of evidence. Mr. Adams replied 
briefly, with dicjnitv, and, considerini:: the cir- 
^umstances, with good temper, stating fairly the 
substantial import of what he had really said, 
aeclaring that he had never mentioned names, 
and refusiui?, for sro^d reasons friven, either to 
do so now or to publish the grounds of such 
opinions as he had entertained. It was sutli- 



218 JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 

ciently clear that he had said nothing secretly 
which he had reason to regret; and that if he 
Bought to shun the discussion opened by his ad- 
versaries, he was influenced by wise forbearance, 
ftnd not at all by any fear of the consequences 
to himself. A dispassionate observer could 
have seen that behind this moderate, rather de- 
precatory letter there was an abundant reserve 
of controversial material held for the moment 
in check. But his adversaries were not dispas- 
sionate ; on the contrary they were greatly ex- 
cited and were honestly convinced of the perfect 
goodness of their cause. They were men of 
the highest character in public and private life, 
deservedly of the best repute in the community, 
of unimpeachable integrity in motives and deal- 
ings, influential and respected, men whom it was 
impossible in New England to treat with neg- 
lect or indifference. For this reason.it was onlv 
the harder to remain silent beneath their pub- 
lished reproach when a refutation was possible. 
Hating Mr. Adams with an animosity not dimin- 
ished by the lapse of years since his defection 
from their party, strong in a consciousness of 
their own standing before their fellow-citizens, 
the thirteen notables responded with much ac- 
rimony to Mr. Adams's unsatisfactory letter. 
Thus persistently challenged and assailed, at a 
time when his recent crushing political defeat 



\ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 219 

made an attack upon him seem a little ungen- 
erous, Mr. Adams at last went into the fight 
in earnest. He had the good fortune to be 
thoroughly right, and also to have sufficient 
evidence to prove and justify at least as much 
as he had ever said. All this evidence he 
brought together in a vindicatory pamphlet, 
v^hich, however, by the time he had completed 
it he decided not to publish. But fortunately 
he did not destroy it, and his grandson, in the 
exercise of a wise discretion, has lately given it 
to the world. His foes never knew how deeply 
they were indebted to the self-restraint which 
induced him to keep this formidable missive 
harmless in his desk. Full of deep feeling, yet 
free from ebullitions of temper, clear in state- 
ment, concise in style, conclusive in facts, un- 
answerable in argument, unrelentingly severe 
in dealing with opponents, it is as fine a speci- 
men of political controversy as exists in the 
language. Its historical value cannot be ex- 
aggerated, but apart from this as a mere liter- 
ary production it is admirable. Happy were 
the thirteen that they one and all went down to 
their graves complaisantly thinking that they 
had had the last word in the quarrel, little sus- 
pecting how great was their obligation to Mr 
Adams for having granted them that privilege. 
One would think that they might have writhed 



220 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

beneath their moss-grown headstones on the day 
when his last word at length found public ut- 
terance, albeit that the controversy had then 
become one of the dusty tales of history. ^ 

But this task of writing a demolishing pam- 
phlet against the prominent gentlemen of the 
neighborhood to which he was about to return 
for his declining years, could hardly have been a 
grateful task. The passage from political dis- 
aster to social enmities could not but be painful; 
and Mr. Adams was probably never more un- 
Lappy than at this period of his life. The re- 
vard which virtue was tendering to him seemed 
^nmixed bitterness. 

Thus at the age of sixty-two years, Mr. Ad- 
ams found himself that melancholy product of 
the American governmental system — an ex- 
President. At this stage it would seem that the 
fruit ought to drop from the bough, no further 

i It is with great reluctance that these comments are made, 
since some persons may think that they come with ill grace 
from one whose grandfather was one of the thirteen and was 
Hupposed to have drafted one or both of their letters. But 
in spite of the prejudice naturally growing out of this fact, a 
thorough study of the whole subject has convinced mfe that 
Mr. Adams was unquestionably and completely right, and I 
have no escape from saying so. His adversaries had the ex 
luse of honesty in political error — an excuse which the great" 
est and wisest men must often fall back upon in times of ho 
j>arty Tvarfare. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 221 

process of development being reasonably prob- 
able for it. Yet Mr. Adams had by no means 
reached this measure of ripeness ; he still en- 
joyed abundant vigor of mind and body, and to 
lapse into dignified decrepitude was not agree- 
able, indeed was hardly possible for him. The 
prospect gave him profound anxiety ; he dreaded 
idleness, apathy, and decay with a keen terror 
which perhaps constituted a sufficient guaranty 
against them. Yet what could he do? It would 
be absurd for him now to furbish up the rusty 
weapons of the law and enter again upon the 
tedious labor of collecting a clientage. His 
property was barely sufficient to enable him to 
live respectably, even according to the simple 
standard of the time, and could open to him no 
occupation in the way of gratifying unremuner- 
ative tastes. In March, 1828, he had been ad- 
vised to use five thousand dollars in a way to 
promote his reelection. He refused at once, 
upon principle ; but further set forth " candidly, 
the state of his affairs " : — 

" All my real estate in Quincy and Boston is mort- 
gaged for the payment of my debts ; the income of 
ray whole private estate is less than $6,000 a year, 
and I am payicg at least two thousand of that for in- 
terest on my debt. Finally, upon going out of office 
.n oue year from this time, destitute of all means of 
fccquiring property, it will only be by the sacrifice of 



222 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

that which I now possess that I shall be able to sup 
port my family." 

At first he plunged desperately into the Latin 
classics. He had a strong taste for such read- 
ing, and he made a firm resolve to compel thia 
taste now to stand him in good stead in his hour 
of need. He courageously demanded solace 
from a pursuit which had yielded him pleasure 
enough in hours of relaxation, but which was 
altogether inadequate to fill the huge vacuum 
now suddenly created in his time and thoughts. 
There is much pathos in this spectacle of the 
old man setting himself with ever so feeble a 
weapon, yet with stern determination, to con- 
quer the cruelty of circumstances. But he 
knew, of course, that the Roman authors could 
only help him for a time, by way of distraction, 
in carrying him through a transition period. 
He soon set more cheerfully at work upon a 
.nemoir of his father, and had also plans for 
writing a history of the United States. Liter- 
ature had always possessed strong charms for 
him, and he had cultivated it after his usual 
studious and conscientious fashion. But his 
style was too often prolix, sententious, and tur- 
gid — faults which marked nearly all the writ- 
ing done in this country in those days. The 
world has probably not lost much by reason o 
the non-completion of the contemplated vol 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 223 

ames. He could have made no other contribu- 
tion to the history of the country at all approach- 
ing in value or interest to the J)iary, of which 
a most important part was still to be written. 
For a brief time just now this loses its historic 
character, but makes up for the loss by depicting 
admirably some traits in the mental constitu- 
tion of the diarist. Tales of enchantment, he 
Bays, pleased his boyhood, but " the humors of 
Falstaff hardly affected me at all. Bardolph and 
Pistol and Nym were personages quite unintel- 
ligible to me ; and the lesson of Sir Hugh Evans 
to the boy Williams was quite too serious an af- 
fair." In truth, no man can ever have been 
more utterly void of a sense of humor or an ap- 
preciation of wit than was Mr. Adams. Not a 
single instance of an approach to either is to be 
found throuGfhout the twelve volumes of his 
Diarv. Not even in the simple form of the 
"good story " could he find pleasure, and subtler 
delicacies were wasted on his well-regulated 
mind as dainty French dishes would be on the 
wholesome palate of a day-laborer. The books 
T^hich bore the stamp of well-established ap- 
proval, the acknowledged classics of the Eng- 
lish, Latin, and French languages he read with 
X mingled sense of duty and of pleasure, and 
jvidently with cultivated appreciation, though 
«rhether he would have made an original dis- 



224 JOHN QUTNCT ADAMS. 

covery of their merits may be doubted. Oc- 
casionally be failed to admire even those vol- 
umes which deserved admiration, and then with 
characteristic honesty he admitted the fact. He 
tried Paradise Lost ten times before he could 
get through with it, and was nearly thirty years 
old when he first succeeded in reading it to the 
end. Thereafter he became very fond of it, 
but plainly by an acquired taste. He tried 
smoking and Milton, he says, at the same time, 
in the hope of discovering the " recondite 
charm " in them which so pleased his father. 
He was more easily successful with the tobacco 
than with the poetry. Many another has had 
the like experience, but the confession is not 
always so frankly forthcoming. 

Fate, however, had in store for Mr. Adams 
labors to which he was better suited than those 
of literature, and tasks to be performed which 
the nation could ill afford to exchange for an 
apotheosis of our second President, or even for 
a respectable but probably not very readable 
history. The most brilliant and glorious years 
of his career were yet to be lived. He was to 
earn in his old age a noble fame and distinction 
far transcending any achievement of his youth 
and middle age, and was to attain the highest 
pinnacle of his fame after he had left the great 
est office of the Government, and during a pe 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 225 

riod for which presumably nothing better had 
been allotted than that he should tranquilly 
await the summons of death. It is a striking 
circumstance that the fullness of greatness for 
one who had been Senator, Minister to England, 
Secretary of State, and President, remained to 
be won in the comparatively humble position of 
a Representative in CoDgreaa 



CHAPTER III. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

In September, 1830, Mr. Adams notes in hi 
Diary a suggestion made to him that he might 
if he wished be elected to the national House 
of Representatives from the Plymouth district. 
The gentleman who threw out this tentative 
proposition, remarked that in his opinion the 
acceptance of this position by an ex-President 
" instead of degrading the individual would 
elevate the representative character." Mr. Ad- 
ams replied, that he "had in that respect no 
scruple whatever. No person could be degraded 
by serving the people as a Representative in 
Congress. Nor in my opinion would an ex- 
President of the United States be degraded by 
serving as a selectman of his town, if elected 
thereto by the people." A few weeks later his 
election was accomplislied by a flattering vote, 
the poll showing for him 1817 votes out of 2565, 
with only 373 for the next candidate. He con- 
tinued thenceforth to represent this district un- 
til his death, a period of about sixteen years. 
During this time he was occasionally suggested 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 227 

as a candidate for the governorship of the State, 
but was always reluctant to stand. The feeling 
between the Freemasons and the anti-Masons 
ran very liigh for several years, and once he was 
prevailed upon to allow his name to be used by 
tlie latter party. The result was that there was 
no election by the people ; and as he had been 
very loath to enter the contest in the beginning, 
he insisted upon withdrawing from before the 
legislature. We have now therefore onl}^ to pur- 
sue his career in the lower house of Congress. 

Unfortunately, but of obvious necessity, it is 
possible to touch only upon the more salient 
points of this which was really by far the most 
striking and distinguished portion of his life. 
To do more than this would involve an expla- 
nation of the politics of tlie country and the 
measures before Congress much more elaborate 
than would be possible in this volume. It will 
be necessary, therefore, to confine ourselves to 
drawing a picture of him in his character as the 
great combatant of Southern slavery. In the 
waging of this mighty conflict we shall see 
both his mind and his character developing in 
strength even in these years of his old age, and 
his ^.raits standing forth in bolder relief than 
ever before. In his place on ^-he floor of the 
House of Representatives b.e was destined to 
appear a more impreo«ive figure than in any 



228 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

of the higher positions which he had previously 
filled. There he was to do his greatest work 
and to win a peculiar and distinctive glory 
which takes him out of the general throng even 
of famous statesmen and entitles his name to 
be remembered with an especial reverence. Ad- 
equately to sketch his achievements, and so to 
do his memory the honor which it deserves, 
would require a pen as eloquent as has been 
wielded by any writer of our language. I can 
only attempt a brief and insufficient narrative. 

In his conscientious wav he was faithful and 
industrious to a rare degree. He was never ab- 
sent and seldom late ; he bore unflinchingly the 
burden of severe committee work, and shirked 
no toil on the plea of age or infirmity. He at- 
tended closely to all the business of the House , 
carefully formed his opinions on every question ; 
never failed to vote except for cause ; and always 
had a sufficient reason independent of party al- 
legiance to sustain his vote. Living in the age 
of oratory, he earned the name of " the old man 
eloquent." Yet he was not an orator in the 
sense in which Webster, Clay, and Calhoun 
were orators. He was not a rhetorician ; he had 
neither grace of manner nor a fine presence, 
neither an imposing delivery, nor even pleasing 
tones. On the contrary, he was exoeptionalh 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 229 

lacking in all these qualities. He was short, 
rotund, and bald ; about the time when he en- 
tered Congress, complaints become frequent in 
his Diary of weak and inflamed eyes, and soon 
these organs became so rheumy that the water 
would trickle down his cheeks ; a shaking of the 
hand grew upon him to such an extent that in 
time he had to use artificial assistance to steady 
it for writing ; his voice was high, shrill, liable 
to break, pi.^rcing enough to make itself heard, 
but not agreeable. This hardly seems the pict- 
ure of an orator; nor was it to any charm of el- 
ocution that he owed his influence, but rather to 
the fact that men soon learned that what he said 
was always well worth hearing. When he en- 
tered Congress he had been for much more than 
a third of a century zealously gathering knowl- 
edge in public affairs, and during his career in 
that body evei-y yt^ar swelled the already vast 
accumulation. Moreover, listeners were always 
sure to get a bold and an honest utterance and 
often pretty keen words from him, and he never 
spoke to an inattentive audience or to a thin 
house. Whether pleased or incensed by what 
he said, the Representatives at least always list- 
ened to it. He was by nature a hard fighter, 
and by the circumstances of his course in Con- 
gress this quality was stimulated to such a de- 
gree tbiit Parliamentary history does not sho\\ 



230 JOHN QUINCY ADAM a. 

his equal as a gladiator. His power of invective 
was extraordinary, and he was untiring and 
merciless in his use of it. Theoretically he 
disapproved of sarcasm, but practically he could 
not refrain from it. Men winced and cowered 
before his milder attacks, became sometimes 
dumb, sometimes furious with mad rage before 
his fiercer assaults. Such struggles evidently 
gave him pleasure, and there was scarce a back 
in Congress that did not at one time or another 
feel the score of his cutting lash ; though it was 
the Southerners and the Northern allies of 
Southerners whom chiellv he sini>;led out for 
torture. He was irritable and quick to wrath; 
he himself constantly speaks of the infirmity of 
his temper, and in his many conflicts his prin- 
cipal concern was to keep it in control. His 
enemies often referred to it and twitted him 
with it. Of alliances he was careless, and friend- 
ships he had almost none. But in the creation 
of enmities he was terribly successful. Not so 
much at first, but increasingly as years went on, 
a state of ceaseless, vigilant hostility became his 
normal condition. P'rom the time when he fairly 
entered upon the long struggle against slavery, 
he enjoyed few peaceful days in the House. 
But he seemed to thrive upon the warfare, and 
to be never so well pleased as when he wag 
bandying hot words with slave-holders and th^ 



JOHN QU2NCY ADAMS. 231 

Northern supporters of slave-holders. When 
fche air of the House was thick with crimination 
and abuse he seemed to suck in fresh vigor and 
spirit from the hate-laden atmosj^here. When in- 
vective fell around him in showers, he screamed 
back his retaliation with untiring rapidity and 
marvellous dexterity of aim. No odds could 
appal him. With his back set firm against a 
solid moral principle, it was his joy to strike 
out at a multitude of foes. They lost their 
heads as well as their tempers, but in the ex- 
tremest moments of excitement and anger Mr. 
Adams's brain seemed to work with machine- 
like coolness and accuracy. With flushed face, 
streaming eyes, animated gesticulation, and 
cracking voice, he always retained perfect mas- 
tery of all his intellectual faculties. He thus 
became a terrible antagonist, whom all feared, 
yet fearing could not refrain from attacking, so 
bitterly and incessantly did he choose to exert 
his wonderful power of exasperation. Few men 
could throw an oj^ponent into wild blind fury 
with snch speed and certainty as he could ; and 
he does not conceal the malicious gratification 
which snch feats brought to him. A leader of 
Buch fighting capacity, so courageous, with such 
a magazine of experience and information, and 
with a character so irreproachable, could have 
won brilliant victories in public life at the head 



232 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

of eyen a small band of devoted followers. But 
Mr. Adams never had and apparently never 
wanted followers. Other prominent public men 
were brou2;ht not onlv into collision but into 
comparison witli their contemporaries. But Mr. 
Adams's individuality was so stronor that he can 
be compared with no one. It WdS not an indi- 
vi luality of genius nor to any remarkable extent 
of mental qualities ; but rather an individuality 
of character. To this fact is probably to be 
attributed his peculiar solitariness. ]\Ien touch 
eacn otlier for purposes of attachment thrvvugh 
their characters much more than through their 
minds. But few men. even in agi't'einor with Mr. 
Adams, felt themselves in sympathy with liim. 
Occasionally conscience, or invincible lomc, or 
even policy and self-interest, might compel one 
or another politician to stand beside him in de- 
bate or in votins: : but no current of fellow- 
feeling ever passed between such temporary 
comrades and him. It was the cold connection 
of duty or of business. The first instinct of 
nearly every one was opposition towards him ; 
coalition might be forced by circumstances but 
never came by volition. For the pui])Ose of 
winning immediate successes this was of course 
a most unfortunate condition of relati'tnships. 
Vet it had some compensations : it left such 
mfluence as Mr. Adams could exert by stead 



JOHN QUI AC Y AD A Ma. 2'dZ 

fastness and argument entirely unweakened by 
Buspicion of hidden motives or personal ends. 
He bad the weight and enjoyed the respect 
which a sincerity beyond distrust must always 
command in the long run. Of this we shall see 
Bome striking instances. 

One important limitation, however, belongs tc 
this statement of solitariness. It was confined 
to his position in Congress. Outside of the city 
of Washington great numbers of the people, 
especially in New England, lent him a hearty 
support and regarded h'.m with friendship and 
admiration. These men had strong convictions 
and deep feelings, and their adherence counted 
for much. Moreover, their numbers steadily 
increased, and Mr. Adams saw that be was the 
leader in a cause wliich engaged the sound sense 
and the best feeling of the intelligent people of 
the country, and which wjis steadily gaining 
ground. Without such encouragement it is 
doubtful whether even his persistence would 
have held out through so long and extreme a 
trial. The sense of human fellowship was need- 
ful to him ; he could go without it in Congress, 
but li» '^ould not have gone without it alto- 
gether. 

Mr. Adams took his seat in the House as a 
member of the twenty-second Congress in De- 
lember, 1831. He had been elected by the Na- 



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236 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



Dut in his famous proclamation to meet the nul 
lification ordinance, he spoke in tones more 
pleasing to Mr. Adams. But the ultimate com- 
promise which disposed of the temporary dis- 
sension without permanently settling the funda- 
mental question of the constitutional right of 
nullification, was extremely distasteful to him. 
He was utterly opposed to the concessions which 
were made while South Carolina still remained 
contumacious. He was for compelling her to 
retire altogether from her rebellious position 
and to repeal her unconstitutional enactments 
wholly and unconditionally, before one jot 
should be abated from the obnoxious duties. 
When the bill for the modification of the tariff 
was under debate, he moved to strike out all 
but the enacting clause, and supported his mo- 
tion in a long speech, insisting that no tariff 
ought to pass until it was known " whether 
there was any measure by which a State could 
defeat the laws of the Union." In a minority 
report from his own committee he strongly cen- 
sured the policy of the Administration. He was 
for meeting, fighting out, and determining at 
this crisis the whole doctrine of state rights and 
Becession. '^ One particle of compromise," he 
said, with what truth events have since shown 
cleai'ly enough, would "directly lead to the 
tinal and irretrievable dissolution of the Union. 



JOHN QUJNCr ADAMS. 237 

Tn his usual strong and thorough-going fashion 
he was for persisting in the vigorous and spirited 
measures, the mere brief declaration of which, 
though so quickly receded from, won for Jack- 
son a measure of credit greater than he de- 
served. Jackson was thrown into a great rage 
by the threats of South Carolina, and replied 
to them with the same prompt wrath with 
which he had sometimes resented insults from 
individuals. But in his cool inner mind he was 
in sympathy with the demands which that State 
preferred, and though undoubtedly he would 
have fought her, had the dispute been forced to 
that pass, yet he was quite willing to make con- 
cessions, which were in fact in consonance with 
his own views as well as with hers, in order to 
avoid that sad conclusion. He was satisfied to 
have the instant emergency pass over in a man- 
ner rendered superficially creditable to himself 
by his outburst of temper, under cover of which 
he sacrificed the substantial matter of principle 
without a qualm. He shook his fist and shouted 
defiance in the face of the nullifiers, while Mr. 
Clay smuggled a comfortable concession into 
their pockets. Jackson, notwithstanding his 
belligerent attitude, did all he could to help 
Clay and was well pleased with the result. Mr. 
Adams was not. He watched the disingenuous 
game with disgust. It is certain that if he had 



238 JOHN aUlNCY ADAMS. 

still been in the White House, the matter would 
have had a very different ending, bloodier, it 
may be, and more painful, but much more con- 
clusive. 

For the most part Mr. Adams found himself 
in opposition to President Jackson's Adminis- 
tration. This was not attributable to any sense 
of personal hostility towards a successful rival, 
but to an inevitable antipathy towards the 
measures, methods, and ways adopted by the 
General so unfortunately transferred to civil 
life. Few intelligent persons, and none having 
the statesman habit of mind, befriended the 
reckless, violent, eminently unstatesmanlike 
President. His ultimate weakness in the nulli- 
fication matter, his opposition to internal im- 
provements, his policy of sacrificing the public 
lands to individual speculators, his warfare 
against the Bank of the United States conducted 
by methods the most unjustifiable, the transac- 
tion of the removal of the deposits so disreputa- 
ble and injurious in all its details, the importa- 
tion of Mrs. Eaton's visiting list into the politics 
and government of the country, the dismissal 
of the oldest and best public servants as a part 
of the nefarious system of using public offices 
as rewards for political aid and personal adher 
ence, the formation from base ingredients of the 
igno]>le "Kitchen Cabinet," — all these doings 



JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 239 

together with much more of the like sort, con- 
stituted a career whicli could only seem blunder- 
ing, undignified, and dishonorable in the eyes of 
A man like Mr. Adams, who regarded states- 
manship with the reverence due to the noblest 
of human callings. 

Right as Mr. Adams was generally in his op- 
position to Jackson, yet once he deserves credit 
for the contrary course. This was in the matter 
of our relations with France. The treaty of 1831 
secured to this country an indemnity of $5,000,- 
000, which, however, it had never been possible 
to collect. This procrastination raised Jackson's 
ever ready ire, and casting to the winds any 
further dunning, he resolved either to have 
the money or to fight for it. He sent a mes- 
sage to Congress, recommending that if France 
should not promptly settle the account, letters 
of marque and reprisal against her commerce 
should be issued. He ordered Edward Living- 
ston, minister at Paris, to demand his pass- 
ports and cross over to London. These emi- 
nently proper and ultimately effectual measures 
alarmed the large party of the timid ; and the 
General found himself in danger of extensive 
desertions even on the part of his usual support- 
ers. But as once before in a season of his dire 
extremity his courage and vigor had brought 
the potent aid of Mr. Adams to his side, so now 



240 JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 

again lie came under a heavy debt of gratitude 
to the same champion. Mr. Adams stood by 
him with generous gallantry, and by a telling 
Bpeech in the House probably saved him from 
serious humiliation and even disaster. The 
President's style of dealing had roused Mr. Ad- 
ams's spirit, and lie spoke with a fire and vehe- 
mence which accomplished the unusual feat of 
changing the predisposed minds of men too fa- 
miliar with speech- making to be often much in- 
fluenced by it in the practical matter of voting. 
He thought at the time that the success of this 
speech, brilliant as it appeared, was not unlikely 
to result in his political ruin. Jackson would 
befriend and reward his thorough-going parti- 
sans at any cost to his own conscience or the 
public welfare ; but the exceptional aid, ten- 
dered not from a sense of personal fealty to him- 
self, but simply from the motive of aiding the 
right cause happening in the especial instance 
to have been espoused by him, never won from 
him any token of regard. In November, 1837, 
Mr. Adams, speaking of his personal relations 
with the President, said :- — 

" Though I had served him more than any other 
Hving man ever did, and though 1 supported his Ad- 
ministration at the hazard of my own political de 
Btruction, and effected for him at a moment when hii 
Dwu friends were deserting him what no other mem 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 241 

ber of Congress ever accomplished for him — an 
ananimous vote of the House of Representatives to 
support him in his quarrel with France ; though I 
supported him in other very critical periods of his Ad- 
ministration, my return from him was insult, indig- 
nity, and slander." 

Antipathy had at last become the definitive 
condition of these two men — antipathy both 
political and personal. At one time a singular 
effort to reconcile them — probably though not 
certainly undertaken with the knowledge of 
Jackson — was made by Richard M. Johnson. 
This occurred shortly before the inauguration 
of the war conducted by the President against 
the Bank of the United States; and judging by 
the rest of Jackson's behavior at this period, 
there was probably at least as much of calcula- 
tion in his motives, if in fact he was cognizant 
of Johnson's approaches, as there was of any 
real desi."> to reestablish the bygone relation of 
honorable friendship. To the advances thus 
made Mr. Adams replied a little coldly, not 
quite repellentl y, that Jackson, having been re- 
sponsible for the suspension of personal inter- 
course, must now be undisguisedly the active 
party in renewing it. At the same time he pro- 
fessed himself " willing to receive in a spirit of 
conciliation any advance which in that spirit 
General Jackson might make." But nothing 

16 



242 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

came of this intrinsically liopeless attempt. On 
the contrary the two drew rapidly and more 
widely apart, and entertained concerning each 
other opinions which grew steadily more im 
favorable, and upon Adams's part more con- 
temptuous, as time went on. 

Fifteen months later General Jackson made 
his visit to Boston, and it was proposed that 
Harvard College should confer upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Laws. The absurdity of 
the act, considered simply in itself, was admit- 
ted by all. But the argument in its favor waa 
based upon the established usage of the College 
as towards all other Presidents, so that its omis- 
sion in this case might seem a personal slight. 
Mr. Adams, being at the time a member of the 
Board of Overseers, strongly opposed the prop- 
osition, but of course in vain. All that he could 
do was, for his own individual part, to refuse to 
be present at the conferring of the d^^gree, giv- 
ing as the minor reason for his absence, that he 
could hold no friendly intercourse with the Pres- 
ident, but for the major reason that " independ- 
ent of that, as myself an affectionate child of 
our Alma Mater, I would not be present to wit- 
ness lier disgrace in conferring her highest lit- 
erajy honors upon a barbarian who could not 
write a sentence of grammar and hardly could 
spell his own name.'* " A Doctorate of Laws,' 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 243 

he said, " for which an apology was necessary, 
was a cheap honoi and ... a sycophantic com- 
pliment." After the deed was done, he used to 
amuse himself by speaking of '' Doctor Andrew 
Jackson." This same eastern tour of Jackson's 
called forth many other expressions of bitter 
sarcasm from Adams. The President was ill 
and unable to carry out the programme of en- 
tertainment and exhibition prepared for him : 
whereupon Mr. Adams remarks : — 

" I believe much of his debility is politic. . . . He 
is one of our tribe of great men who turn disease to 
commodity, like John Randolph, who for forty years 
was always dying. Jackson, ever since he became a 
mark of public attention, lias been doing the same 
thing. . . . He is now ahernately giving out his 
chronic diarrhoea and making Warren bleed him for a 
pleurisy, and posting to Cambridge for a doctorate of 
laws ; mounting tlie monument of Bunker's Hill to 
hear a fulsome address and receive two cannon balls 
from Edward Everett," etc. " Four fifths of his sick- 
ness is trickery, and the other filth mere fatigue." 

This sounds, it must be confessed, a trifle 
rancorous ; but Adams had great excuse for 
nourishing rancor towards Jackson. 

It is time, however, to return to the House 
)f Representatives. It was not by bearing hia 
ihare in the ordinary work of that body, im 
},oitant or exciting as that might at one time or 



844 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

another happen to be, that Mr. Adams was to 
win in Congress that reputation which hag 
been already described as far overshadowing all 
bis previous career. A special task and a pe- 
culiar mission were before him. It was a part 
of his destiny to become the champion of the 
anti-slavery cause in the national legislature. 
Almost the first thing which he did after he 
had taken his seat in Congress was to present 
"fifteen petitions signed numerously by citizens 
of Pennsylvania, praying for the abolition of 
slavery and the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia." He simply moved their reference 
to the Committee on the District of Columbia, 
declaring that he should not support that part 
of the petition which prayed for abolition in 
tlie District. The time had not yet come when 
the South felt much anxiety at such manifesta- 
tions, and these first stones were dropped into 
the pool without stirring a ripple on the sur- 
face. For about four years more we hear little 
in the Diary concerning slavery. It was not until 
1835, when the annexation of Texas began to be 
mooted, that the North fairly took the alarm, 
Rnd the irrepressible conflict began to develop. 
Then at once we find Mr. Adams at the front. 
That he had always cherished an abhorrence of 
slavery and a bitter antipathy to slave-holders 
%s a class, is suflSciently indicated by manj 



JOHN QUINCr ADAMS. 245 

chance remarks scattered througb liis Diary 
from early years. Now that a great question, 
vitally affecting the slave power, divided the 
country into parties and inaugurated the strug- 
gle which never again slept until it was settled 
forever bv the result of the civil war, Mr. Ad- 
ams at once assumed the function of leader. 
His position should be clearly understood ; for 
in the vast labor wbich lay before the abolition 
part}' different tasks fell to different men. Mr. 
Adams assumed to be neither an agitator nor 
a reformer ; by necessity of character, training, 
fitness, and official position, he was a legislator 
and statesman. Tlie task which accident or 
destiny allotted to liim, was neither to preach 
among the people a crusade against slavery, nor 
to devise and keep in action the thousand re- 
sources which busy men throughout the country 
were constantly multiplying for the purpose of 
spreading and increasing a popular hostility 
towards the great " institution." Every great 
cause has need of its fanatics, its vanguard to 
keep far in advance of what is for the time 
reasonable and possible ; it has not less need 
of the wiser and cooler heads to discipline and 
control the great mass which is set in motion 
by the reckless forerunners, to see to the ac- 
fomplishment of that which the present circum- 
stances and development of the movement al 



246 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



iow to be accomplished. It fell to Mr. Adams 
jO direct the assault against the outworks which 
were then vulnerable, and to see that the force 
then possessed by the movement was put to 
Buch uses as would insure definite results in 
stead of being wasted in endeavors which as 
yet were impossible of achievement. Drawing 
his duty from his situation and surroundings, 
he left to others, to younger men and more 
rhetorical natures, outside the walls of Congress, 
the business of firing the people and stirring 
popular opinion and sympathy. He was set to 
do that portion of the work of abolition which 
was to be done in Congress, to encounter the 
mighty efforts which were made to stifle the 
great humanitarian cry in the halls of the na- 
tional legislature. This was quite as much as 
one man was equal to ; in fact, it is certain that 
no one then in public life except Mr. Adams 
could have done it effectually. So obvious is 
this that one cannot help wondering what would 
have befallen the cause, had he not been just 
where he was to forward it in just the way that 
he did. It is only another among the many 
instances of the need surely finding the man. 
His qualifications were unique ; his ability, his 
knowledge, his prestige and authority, his high 
personal character, his persistence and courage 
his combativeness stimulated by an acrimoni 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 241 

^.us temper but checked by a sound judgment, 
his merciless power of invective, his indepen- 
dence and carelessness of applause or vilification, 
friendship or enmity, constituted him an oppo- 
aent fully equal to the enormous odds which 
the slave-holding interest arrayed against him. 
A like moral and mental fitness was to be 
found in no one else. Numbers could not over- 
awe him, nor loneliness dispirit him. He was 
probably the most formidable fighter in debate 
of whom parliamentary records preserve the 
memory. The hostility which he encountered 
beggars description ; the English language was 
deficient in adequate words of virulence and 
contempt to express the feelings which were 
entertained towards him. At home he had 
not the countenance of that class in society to 
which he naturally belonged. A second time 
he found the chief part of the gentlemen of 
Boston and its vicinity, the leading lawyers, the 
rich merchants, the successful manufacturers, 
not only opposed to him, but entertaining to- 
wards him sentiments of personal dislike and 
even vindictiveness. This stratum of the com- 
munity, having a natural distaste for disquieting 
Bgitation and influenced by class feeling — the 
gentlemen of the North sympathizing with the 
"aristocracy" of the South, — could not make 
common cause with anti-slavery people. For- 



248 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



tunately, liowever, Mr. Adams was returned by 
a coQiitry district where the old Puritan in- 
stincts were still strong. The intelligence and 
free spirit of New England were at his back, and 
were fairly represented by him ; in spite of high- 
bred disfavor they carried him gallantly through 
the long struggle. The people of the Ptymouth 
District sent him back to the House every two 
years from the time of his first election to the 
year of his death, and the disgust of the gentle- 
men of Boston was after all of trifling conse- 
quence to him and of no serious influence upon 
the course of history. The old New England 
instinct was in him as it was in the mass of the 
people ; that instinct made him the real ex- 
ponent of New England thought, belief, and 
feeling, and that same instinct made the great 
body of voters stand by him with unswerving 
constancy. When his fellow Representatives, 
almost to a man, deserted him, he was sus- 
tained by many a token of sympathy and admi- 
ration coming from among the people at large. 
Time and the history of the United States have 
been his potent vindicators. The conservative, 
conscienceless respectability of wealth «^as, as 
is usually the case with it in the annals of the 
Anglo-Saxon race, quite in the wrong and pre- 
destined to well-merited defeat. It adds to the 
honor due to Mr. Adams that his sense of right 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 249 

iras true enough, and that his vision was clear 
enough to lead him out of that strong thraldom 
which class feelings, traditions, and comradeship 
are wont to exercise. 

But it is time to resume the narrative and to 
let Mr. Adams's acts, — of which after all it is 
possible to give only the briefest sketch, select- 
ing a few of the more s^-riking incidents, — tell 
the tale of bis Congressional life. 

On February 14, 1835, IVIr. Adams again pre- 
sented two petitions for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, but without giving 
rise to much excitement. The fusillade was, 
however, getting too thick and fast to be en- 
dured longer with indifference by the impatient 
Southerners. At the next session of Congress 
they concluded to try to stop it, and their in- 
genious scheme was to make Congress shot- 
proof, so to speak, against such missiles. On 
January 4, 1836, Mr. Adams presented an abo- 
lition petition couched in the usual form, and 
moved that it be laid on the table, as others like 
it had lately been. But in a moment Mr. Glas- 
cock, of Georgia, moved that the petition be 
not received. Debate sprang up on a point of 
order, and two days later, before the question 
of reception was determined, a resolution was 
offered by Mr. Jarvis, of Maine, declaring that 
the House would not entertain any petitions for 



260 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 

the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. This resolution was supported on the 
ground that Congress bad no constitutional 
power in tlie premises. Some days later, Jan- 
uary 18, 1836, before any final action had been 
reached upon this proposition, Mr. Adams pre- 
sented some more abolition petitions, one of 
them signed by " one hundred and forty-eight 
ladies, citizens of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts ; for, I said, I had not yet brought my- 
self to doubt whether females were citizens." 
The usual motion not to receive was made, and 
then a new device was resorted to in the shape 
of a motion that the motion not to receive be 
laid on the table. 

On February 8, 1836, this novel scheme for 
shutting off petitions against slavery immedi- 
ately upon their presentation was referred to 
a select committee of which Mr. Pinckney was 
chairman. On May 18 this committee reported 
in substance : 1. That Congress had no power 
to interfere with slavery in any State ; 2. That 
Congress ought not to interfere with slavery in 
the District of Columbia ; 3. That whereas 
the agitation of the subject was disquieting and 
objectionable, " all petitions, memorials, resolu- 
tions or papers, relating in any way or to any 
extent whatsoever to the subject of slavery or 
the abolition of slavery, shall, without being 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 25 1 

either printed or referred, be laid upon the 
table, and that no further action whatever shall 
be had thereon." When it came to taking a 
vote upon this report a division of the question 
was called for, and the yeas and nays ^ere 
ordered. The first resolution was then read, 
whereupon Mr. Adams at once rose and pledged 
himself, if the House would allow him five min- 
utes time, to prove it to be false. But cries of 
" order " resounded ; he was compelled to take 
his seat and the resolution was adopted by 182 
to 9. Upon the second resolution he asked to 
be excused from voting, and his name was 
passed in the call. The third resolution with 
its preamble was then read, and Mr. Adams, so 
soon as his name was called, rose and said : " I 
hold the resolution to be a direct violation of 
the Constitution of the United States, the rules 
of this House, and the rights of my constit- 
uents." He was interrupted by shrieks of 
"order" resounding on e^ery side; but he only 
Bpoke the louder and obstinately finished his 
sentence before resuming his seat. The resolu- 
tion was of course agreed to, the vote standing 
117 to 68. Such was the beginning of the fa- 
mous "gag" which became and long remained 
— afterward in a worse shape — a standing 
rule of the House. Regularly in each new Con- 
fess when the adoption of rules lame up, Mr. 



252 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Adams moved to rescind the " gag ; " but foi 
mari}^ years his motions continued to be voted 
down, as a matter of course. Its imposition was 
clearly a mistake on the part of the slave-hold- 
ing party ; f lee debate would almost surely have 
hurt them less than this interference with the 
freedom of petition. They had assumed an un- 
tenable position. Henceforth, as the persistent 
advocate of the right of petition, Mr. Adams 
had a support among the people at large vastly 
greater than he could have enjoyed as the 
opponent of slavery. As his adversaries had 
shaped the issue he was predestined to victory 
in a free country. 

A similar scene was enacted on December 21 
and 22,1837. A "gag "or "speech-smothering" 
resolution being then again before the House, 
Mr. Adams, when his name was called in the 
taking of the vote, cried out " amidst a perfect 
war-whoop of 'order: ' ' I hold the resolution to 
be a violation of the Constitution, of the right 
of petition of my constituents and of the people 
of the United States, and of my right to free- 
dom of speech as a member of this House.' '* 
Afterward, in reading over the names of mem- 
bers who had voted, the clerk omitted that of 
Mr. Adams, this utterance of his not bavins 
constituted a vote. Mr. Adams called attention 
to the omission. The clerk, by direction of th« 



JOHN QCINCY ADAMS. 253 

Speaker, thereupon called his name. His only 
reply was by a motion that his answer as al- 
ready made should be entered on the Journal. 
The Speaker said that this motion was not in 
order. Mr. Adams, resolute to get upon the rec- 
ord, requested that his motion with the Speak 
er's decision that it was not in order might be 
entered on the Journal. The next da}^, finding 
that this entry had not been made in proper 
shape, he brought up the matter again. One of 
his opponents made a false step, and Mr. Adams 
" bantered him " upon it until the other was 
provoked into saying that, '"if the question ever 
came to the issue of war, the Southern people 
would march into New England and conquer 
it." Mr. Adams replied that no doubt they 
would if they could ; that he entered his resolu- 
tion upon the Journal because he was resolved 
that his opponents '' name should go down to 
posterity damned to everlasting fame." No one 
ever gained much in a war of words with this 
ever-ready and merciless tongue. 

Mr. Adams, having soon become known to all 
the nation as the indomitable presenter of anti- 
elavery petiticms, quickly found that great num- 
bers of people were ready to keep him busy in 
this trying task. For a long while it was al- 
most as much as he could accomplish to receive, 
lort, schedule, and present the mfinite number 



254 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

of petitions and memorials which came to Mm 
praying for the abolition of slavery and of the 
slave-trade in the District of Cokimbia, and op- 
posing the annexation of Texas. It was an oc- 
cupation not altogether devoid even of physical 
danger, and calling for an amount of moral 
courage greater than it is now easy to appre- 
ciate. It is the incipient stage of such a con- 
flict that tests the mettle of the little band of 
innovators. When it grows into a great party 
question much less courage is demanded. The 
mere presentation of an odious petition may 
seem in itself to be a simple task ; but to find 
himself in a constant state of antagonism to a 
powerful, active, and vindictive majority in a 
debating body, constituted of such material as 
then made up the House of Representatives, 
wore hardly even upon the iron temper and in- 
flexible disposition of Mr. Adams. '' The most 
insignificant error of conduct in me at this 
time," he writes in April, 1837, '' would be my 
irredeemable ruin in this world ; and both the 
ruling political parties are watching with in- 
tense anxiety for some overt act by me to set 
the whole pack of their hireling presses upon 
me." But amid the host of foes, and aware 
that he could count upon the aid of scarcely a 
Bingle hearty and daring friend, he labored only 
ihe more earnestly. The severe pressure agains^ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 255 

him begat only the more severe counter pres- 
sure upon his part. 

Besides these natural and legitimate difficul- 
ties, Mr. Adams was further in the embarrass- 
ing position of one who has to fear as much 
from the imprudence of allies as from open hos- 
tility of antagonists, and he was often compelled 
to guard against a peculiar risk coming from 
his very coadjutors in the great cause. The ex- 
tremists who had cast aside all regard for what 
was practicable, and who utterly scorned to con- 
sider the feasibility or the consequences of meas- 
ures which seemed to them to be correct as ab- 
stract propositions of morality, were constantly 
urging him to action which would only have 
destroyed him forever in political life, would 
have stripped him of his influence, exiled him 
from that position in Congress where he could 
render the most efficient service that was in 
him, and left him naked of all usefulness and 
utterly helpless to continue tliat essential por- 
tion of the labor which could be conducted by 
no one else. " The abolitionists genernlly," he 
Baid, "are constantly urging me to indiscreet 
movements, which would ruin me, and weaken 
and not strengthen their cause." His family, 
on the other hand, sought to restrain him from 
Jill connection with these dangerous partisans. 
* Between these adverse impulses," he writes, 



256 



JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 



" my mind is agitated almost to distraction . . 
I walk on the edge of a precipice almost e\^ei*y 
Btep tliat I take." In the midst of all this 2inx- 
iety, however, he was fortunately supported by 
the strong commendation of nis constituents 
which they once loyally declared by formal and 
unanimous votes in a convention summoned for 
the express purpose of manifesting their sup- 
port. His feelings appear by an entry in his 
Diary in October, 1837 : — 

" I have gone," he said, " as far upon this article, 
the abolition of slavery, as the public opinion of the 
free portion of the Union will bear, and so far that 
Bcarcely a slave-holding member of the House dares 
to vote with me upon any question. I have as yet 
been thoroughly sustained by my own State, but one 
Btep further and I hazard my own standing and in- 
fluence there, my own final overthrow, and the cause 
of liberty itself for an indefinite time, certainly for 
more than my remnant of life. Were there in the 
House one member capable of taking the lead in this 
cause of universal emancipation, which is moving on- 
ward in the world and in this country, I would with- 
draw from the contest which will rage with increasing 
fury as it draws to its crisis, but for the management 
of which my age, infirmities, and approaching end 
totally disqualify me. There is no such man in the 
House." 

September 15, 1837, he says: 'I have beeis 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 257 

for some time occupied day and night, when at 
home, in assorting and recording the petitions 
and remonstrances against the annexation of 
Texas, and other anti-slavery petitions, which 
flow upon me in torrents." The next day he 
presented the singular petition of one Sberlock 
S. Gregory, who had conceived the eccentric 
notion of asking Congress to declare him " an 
alien or stranger in tlie land so long as slavery 
exists and the wrongs of the Indians are unre- 
quited and unrepented of." September 28 he 
presented a batch of bis usual petitions, and 
also asked leave to offer a resolution calling for 
a report concerning the coasting trade in slaves. 
" There was what Napoleon would have called 
a superb NO ! returned to my request from the 
servile side of the House." The next day he 
presented fifty-one more like documents, and 
notes having previously presented one hundred 
and fifty more. 

In December, 1837, still at this same work, 
_e made a hard but fruitless effort to have the 
Texan remonstrances and petitions sent to a 
select committee instead of to that on foreign af- 
fairs which was constituted in the Southern in- 
terest. On December 29 he " presented several 
bundles of abolition and anti-slavery petitions," 
and said that, having declared his opinion that 
the gag - rule was unconstitutional, null, and 

17 



258 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

void, he should " submit to it only as to physical 
force." January 3, 1838, he presented "about 
a hundred petitions, memorials, and remon- 
strances, — all laid on the table." January 15 
he presented fifty more. January 28 he re- 
ceived thirty-one petitions, and spent that day 
and the next in assorting and filing these and 
others which he previously had, amounting in 
all to one hundred and twenty. February 14, 
in the same year, was a field-day in the petition 
campaign : he presented then no less than three 
hundred and fifty petitions, all but three or four 
of which bore more or less directly upon the 
slavery question. Among these petitions was 
one 

" praying that Congress would take measures to 
protect citizens from the North going to the South 
from danger to their lives. When the motion to lay 
that on the table was made, I said that, ' In another 
part of the Capitol it had been threatened that if a 
Northern abolitionist should go to North Carolina, 
and utter a principle of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ' — Here a loud cry of ' order ! order ! ' burst 
forth, in which the S|)eaker yelled the loudest. I 
waited till it subsided, and then resumed, ' that if thev 
could catch him they would hang him ! ' I said thia 
BO as to be distinctly heard throughout the hall, the 
renewed deafening shout of ' order ! order ! ' notwith 
standing. The Speaker then said, ' The gentlemar 
(rom Massachusetts will take his seat ; ' which I did 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 259 

»nd immediately rose again and presented another 
petition. He did not dare tell me that I could not 
proceed without permission of the House, and I pro- 
ceeded. The threat to hang Northern abolitionists 
was uttered bj Preston of the Senate within the last 
fortnight." 

On March 12, of the same year, he presented 
ninety-six petitions, nearly all of an anti-slav« 
ery character, one of them for '' expunging the 
Declaration of Independence from the Jour- 
nals." 

On December 14, 1838, Mr. Wise, of Vir 
ginia, objected to the reception of certain anti- 
slavery petitions. The Speaker ruled his ob- 
jection out of order, and from this ruling Wise 
appealed. The question ou the appeal was 
taken by yeas and nays. When Mr. Adams's 
name was called, he relates : — 

" I rose and said, ' IMr. Speaker, considering all the 
resolutions introduced by the gentleman from New 
Hampshire as ' — The Speaker roared out, ' The 
gentleman from Massachusetts must answer Aye or 
No, and nothing else. Order ! ' With a reinforced 
voice — ' I refuse to answer, because I consider all 
the proceedings of the House as unconstitutional ' — 
While in a firm and swelling voice I pronounced dis- 
tinctly these words, the Speaker and about two thirds 
of the House cried. ' order ! order ! order ! * till it be- 
came a perfect yell. I paused a moment for it to 



260 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

cease and then said, ' a direct violation of the Consti« 
tutiou of the United States.' While speaking these 
words with lond, distinct, and slow articulation, the 
bawl of ' order ! order ! ' resounded again from two 
thiids of the House. The Speaker, with agonizing 
lungs, screamed, ' I call upon the House to support 
me in the execution of my duty ! ' I then coolly re- 
sumed my seat. Waddy Thompson, of South Caro- 
lina, advancing into one of the aisles with a sarcastic 
smile and silvery tone of voice, said, ' What aid from 
the House would the Speaker desire ? ' The Speaker 
enarled back, ' The gentleman from South Carolina 
is out of order ! ' and a peal of laughter burst forth 
from all sides of the House." 

So that little skirmish ended, much more 
cheerfully than was often the case. 

December 20, 1838, he presented fifty anti 
Blav^ery petitions, among which were three pray- 
ing for the recognition of the Republic of Hayti. 
Petitions of this latter kind he strenuously in- 
sisted should be referred to a select committee, 
or else to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
accompanied in the latter case with explicit 
instructions that a report thereon should be 
brought in. He audaciously stated that he asked 
for these instructions because so many petitions 
of a like tenor had been sent to the ForeiOT 
A-ffairs Committee, and had found it a limba 
from which they never again emerged, and the 
3hairman had said that this would continue to 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 261 

be the case. The chairman, sitting two rows 
behind Mr. Adams, said, " that insinuation 
should not be made against a gentleman ! " "I 
shall make," retorted Mr. Adams, ''what insin- 
uation I please. This is not an insinuation, but 
a direct, positive assertion." 

January 7, 1839, he cheerfully records that 
he presented ninet3'^-five petitions, bearing " di- 
rectly or indirectly u})on the slavery topics,'* 
and some of them very exasperating in tlieir 
lanfTuasce. March 30, 1840, he handed in no 
less than five hundred and eleven petitions, 
many of which were not receivable under the 
" gag " rule adopted on January 28 of that 
year, which had actually gone the length of re- 
fusing so much as a reception to abolition pe- 
titions. April 13, 1840, he presented a peti- 
tion for the repeal of the laws in the District of 
Columbia, which authorized the whipping of 
women. Besides this he had a multitude of 
others, and he only got through the presentation 
of them "just as the morning hour expired." 
On January 21, 1841, he found much amuse- 
ment in puzzling his Southern adversaries by 
presenting some petitions in which, besides the 
usual anti-slavery prayers, there was a prayer 
♦■o refuse to admit to the Union any new State 
vliose constitution should tolerate slavery. The 
Speaker said that only the latter prayer could 



262 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

be received under the " gag " rule. Connor, oi 
North Carolina, moved to lay on the table so 
much of the petition as could be received. Mr. 
Adams tauntingly suggested that in order to do 
this it would be necessary to mutilate the doc- 
ument by cutting it into two pieces ; whereat 
there was great wrath and confusion, '' the 
House got into a snarl, the Speaker knew not 
what to do." The Southerners raved and fumed 
for a while, and finally resorted to their usual 
expedient, and dropped altogether a matter 
which so sorely burned their fingers. 

A fact, very striking in view of the subse- 
quent course of events, concerning Mr. Adams's 
relation with the slavery question, seems hith- 
erto to have escaped the attention of those who 
have dealt with his career. It may as well find 
a place here as elsewhere in a narrative which it 
is diSicult to make strictly chronological. Ap- 
parently he was the first to declare the doc- 
trine, that the abolition of slavery could be law- 
fully accomplished by the exercise of the war 
powers of the Government. The earliest ex- 
pression of this principle is found in a speech 
made by him in May, 1836, concerning the 
distribution of rations to fugitives from Indian 
hostilities in Alabama and Georgia. He then 
mid : — 

" From the instant that your slave-holding Statei 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 263 

decome the theatre of war, civil, servile, or foreign, 
from that instant the war powers of the Constitution 
extend to interference with the institution of slavery 
in every way in which it can be interfered with, from 
R claim of indemnity for slaves taken or destroyed, 
to a cession of the State burdened with slavery to a 
foreign power." 

In June, 1841, he made a speech of whicii no 
report exists, but the contents of which may be 
in part learned from the replies and references 
to it which are on record. Therein he appears 
to have declared that slavery could be abolished 
in the exercise of the treaty-making power, 
having reference doubtless to a treaty conclud- 
ing a war. 

These views were of course mere abstract ex- 
pressions of opinion as to the constitutionality 
of measures the real occurrence of which was 
anticipated by nobody. But, as the first sug- 
gestions of a doctrine in itself most obnoxious 
to the Southern theory and fundamentally de- 
structive of the great Southern *' institution " 
under perfectly possible circumstances, this enun- 
ciation by Mr. Adams gave rise to much indig- 
nation. Instead of allowing the imperfectly 
formulated principle to lose its danger in obliv- 
ion, the Southerners assailed it with vehemence. 
They taunted Mr. Adams with the opinion, as if 
merely to say that he held it was to damn him 



264 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

to everlasting infamy. The only result was that 
they induced him to consider tlie matter more 
fully, and to express his belief more deliber- 
ately. In January, 1842, Mr. Wise attacked 
him upon this ground, and a month later Mar- 
shall followed in the same strain. These as- 
saults were perhaps the direct incentive to what 
was said soon after by Mr. Adams, on April 
14, 1842, in a speech concerning war with Eng- 
land and with Mexico, of whicli there was then 
some talk. Giddings, among other resolutions, 
had introduced one to the effect that the slave 
States had the exclusive right to be consulted 
on the subject of slavery. Mr. Adams said that 
he could not give his assent to this. One of the 
laws of war, he said, is 

" that when a country is invaded, and two hostile 
armies are set in martial array, the commanders of 
both armies have power to emancipate all the slaves 
in the invaded territory." 

He cited some precedents from South Ameri- 
can history, and continued : — 

*' Whether the war be servile, civil, or foreign, I lay 
this down as the law of nations. I say that the mil- 
iary authority takes for the time the place of all mu- 
nicipal institutions, slavery among the rest. Under 
that state of things, so far from its being tiue that the 
States where slavery exists have the exclusive hjh i 
Egement of the subject, not only the President of tbd 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 265 

CFnited States but the commander of the army has 
power to order the universal emancipation of the 
slaves." 

This declaration of constitutional doctrine 
was made with much positiveness and emphasis. 
There for many years the matter rested. The 
principle had been clearly asserted by Mr. Ad- 
ams, angrily repudiated by the South, and in 
the absence of the occasion of war there was 
nothing more to be done in the matter. But 
when the exigency at last came, and the govern- 
ment of the United States were brought face 
fco face with by far the gravest constitutional 
problem presented by the great rebellion, then 
no other solution presented itself save that which 
had been suggested twenty years earlier in the 
days of peace by Mr. Adams. It was in pur- 
suance of the doctrine to which he thus gave 
the first utterance that slavery was forever abol- 
ished in the United States. Extracts from the 
last-quoted speech long stood as the motto of 
the '' Liberator ;" and at the time of the Eman- 
npation Proclamation Mr. Adams was regarded 
as the chief and sufficient authority for an act 
BO momentous in its effect, so infinitely useful 
in a matter of national extremity. But it was 
evidently a theory which had taken strong hold 
Upon him. Besides the foregoing speeches there 
Is an explicit statement of it in a letter which 



266 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

he wrote from Washington April 4, 1836, to 
Hon. Solomon Lincoln, of Hingham, a friend 
and constituent. After touching upon other 
topics he says : — 

" The new pretensions of the slave representation 
in Congress of a right to refuse to receive petitions, and 
that Congress have no constitutional power to abolish 
slavery or the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, 
forced upon me so much of the discussion as I did 
take upon me, but in which you are well aware I did 
not and could not speak a tenth part of my mind. I 
did not, for example, start the question whether by 
the law of God and of nature man can hold property/, 
HEREDITARY property, in man. I did not start the 
question whether in the event of a servile insurrection 
and war. Congress would not have complete unlimited 
control over the whole subject of slavery, even to the 
emancipation of all the slaves in the State where such 
insurrection should break out, aod for the suppression 
of which the freemen of Plymouth and Norfolk coun- 
;ies, Massachusetts, should be called by Acts of Con- 
gress to pour out their treasures and to shed their 
blood. Had I spoken my mind on these two points, 
the sturdiest of the abolitionists would have disavowed 
\he sentiments of their champion." 

The projected annexation of Texas, which 
became a battle-ground whereon the tide of 
conflict swayed so long and so fiercely to and 
fro, profoundly stirred Mr. Adams's indigna* 
ti;m. It is, he said, ''a question of far deepei 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 267 

root and more overshadowing branches than 
any or all others that now agitate this country 
... I had opened it by ray speech ... on 
the 25th May, 1836 — by far the most noted 
speech that I ever made." He based his oppo- 
sition to the annexation upon constitutional 
objections, and on September 18, 1837, offered 
a resolution that '' the power of annexing the 
people of any independent State to this Union 
is a power not delegated by the Constitution of 
the United States to their Congress or to any 
department of their government, but reserved 
to the people." The Speaker refused to re- 
ceive the motion, or even allow it to be read, 
on the ground that it was not in order. Mr. 
Adams repeated substantially the same motion 
in June, 1838, then adding '' that any attempt 
by act of Congress or by treaty to annex the 
Republic of Texas to this Union would be an 
usurpation of power which it would be the 
right and the duty of the free people of the 
Union to resist and annul." The story of his 
opposition to this measure is, however, so in- 
terwoven with his general antagonism to slav- 
ery, that there is little occasion for treating 
them separately.^ 

^ In an address to his cong'-itu ?uts in Sentember, .842, Mr 
A.dams spoke of his course concerning Texas. Having men 
lioned Mr. Van Buren's rej)ly,nerlining ti*3 formal proposition 



268 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Pecjple sometimes took advantage of hia 
avowed principles concerning freedom of peti- 
tion to put him in positions which they thought 
would embarrass him or render him ridiculous. 
Not much success, however, attended these fool- 
ish efforts of shallow wits. It was not easy to 
disconcert him or to take him at disadvantage. 
July 28, 1841, he presented a paper of this 
character coming from sundry Virginians and 
praying that all the free colored population 
should be sold or expelled from the country. 

made in 1837 by the Republic of Texas for auBexation to the 
United States, he continued : " But the slave-breeding passion 
for the annexation was not to be so disconcerted. At the en- 
suing session of Congress numerous petitions and memorials 
for and against the annexation were presented to the House, 
. . . and were referred to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, 
who, without ever taking them into consideration, towards the 
close of the session asked to be discharged from the consider- 
ation of them all. It was on this report that the debate arose, 
in which I disclosed the whole system of duplicity and perfidy 
towards Mexico, which had marked the Jackson Administra- 
tion from its commencement to its close. It silenced the 
clamors for the annexation of Texas to this Union for three 
vears till the catastrophe of the Van Buren Administration. 
The people of the free States were lulled into the belief that 
the whole project was abandoned, and that they should hear 
no more of slave-trade cravings for the annexation of Texas. 
Had Harrison lived they would have heard no more of them 
to this day, but no sooner was John Tyler installed in the 
President's House, than nullification and Texas and war with 
Mexicv* rose again upon the surface, with eye steadily fixed 
Upon the Polar Star of Southern slave-dealing supremacy ig 
the government of the Union." 



JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 269 

He simply stated as he handed in the sheet that 
nothing could be more abhorrent to him than 
this prayer, and that his respect for the right of 
petition was his only motive for presenting this. 
It was suspended under the ''gag" rule, and 
its promoters, unless very easily amused, must 
have been sadly disappointed with the fate and 
effect of their joke. On March 5, 1838, he 
received from Rocky Mount in Virginia a letter 
and petition praying that the House would ar- 
raign at its bar and forever expel John Quincy 
Adams. He presented both documents, with 
a resolution asking that they be referred to a 
committee for investigation and report. His 
enemies in the House saw that he was sure 
to have the best of the sport, if the matter 
should be pursued, and succeeded in laying it 
on the table. Waddy Thompson thoughtfully 
improved the opportunity to mention to Mr. 
Adams that he also had received a petition, 
"numerously signed," praying for Mr. Adams'a 
expulsion, but had never presented it. In the 
following May Mr. Adams presented another 
petition of like tenor. Dromgoole said that he 
supposed it was a " quiz," and that he would 
move to lay it on the table, " unless the gentle- 
man from Massachusetts wished to give it an- 
other direction." Mr. Adams said that *' the 
gentleman from Massachusetts cared very lit- 



270 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

tie about it," and it found the limbo of the 
»* table." 

To this same period belongs the memorable 
tale of Mr. Adams's attempt to present a peti- 
tion from slaves. On February 6, 1837, he 
brought in some two hundred abolition peti- 
tions. He closed with one against the slave- 
trade in the District of Cohimbia purporting 
to be signed by *' nine ladies of Fredericksburg, 
Virginia," whom he declined to name because, 
as he said, in the present disposition of the 
country, " he did not know what might happen 
to them if he did name them." Indeed, he 
added, he was not sure that the petition was 
genuine ; he had said, when he began to pre- 
sent his petitions, that some among them were 
BO peculiar that he was in doubt as to their 
genuineness, and this fell within the descrip- 
tion. Apparently he had concluded and was 
about to take his seat, when he quickly caught 
up another sheet, and said that he held in his 
hand a paper concerning which he should wish 
to have the decision of the Speaker before pre- 
Benting it. It purported to be a petition from 
twenty-two slaves, and he would like to know 
whether it came within the rule of the House 
concerning petitions relating to slavery. The 
Speaker, in manifest confusion, said that he 
eould not answer the question until he kneTf 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 271 

the contents of the document. Mr. Adams, 
remarking that " it was one of those petitions 
which had occurred to his mind as not being 
what it purported to be," proposed to send it 
up to the Chair for inspection. Objection was 
made to this, and the Speaker said that the 
circumstances were so extraordinary that he 
would take the sense of the House. That body, 
at first inattentive, now became interested, and 
no sooner did a knowledge of what was going 
on spread among those present than great ex- 
citement prevailed. Members were hastily 
brought in from the lobbies ; many tried to 
speak, and from parts of the hall cries of 
" Expel him ! Expel him ! " were heard. For a 
brief interval no one of the enraged Southern- 
ers was equal to the unforeseen emergency. 
Mr. Haynes moved the rejection of the peti- 
tion. Mr. Lewis deprecated this motion, being 
of opinion that the House must inflict punish- 
ment on the gentleman from Massachusetts. 
Mr. Haynes thereupon withdrew a motion which 
was so obviously inadequate to the vindictive 
gravity of the occasion. Mr. Grantland stood 

eady to second a motion to punish Mr. Adams, 
tijd Mr. Lewis said that if punishment should 
not be meted out it would " oe better for tha 
••epresentatives from the siave-holding States 

•^o go home at once." Mr. Alford said that so 



272 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Boon as the petition should be presented he 
would move that it should "be taken from the 
House and burned." At last Mr. Thompson 
got a resolution into shape as follows : — 

" That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by the at* 
tempt just made by him to introduce a petition pur- 
porting on its face to be from slaves, has been guilty 
of a gross disrespect to this House, and that he be 
instantly brought to the bar to receive the severe 
censure of the Speaker." 

In supporting this resolution he said that 
Mr. Adams's action was in gross and wilful vio- 
lation of the rules of the House and an insult 
to its members. He even threatened criminal 
proceedings before the grand jury of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, saying that if that body had 
the " proper intelligence and spirit " people 
might " yet see an incendiary brought to con- 
dign punishment." Mr. Haynes, not satisfied 
with Mr. Thompson's resolution, proposed a 
substitute to the effect that Mr. Adams had 
"rendered himself justly liable to the severest 
censure of this House and is censured accord- 
ingly." Then there ensued a little more ex- 
cited speech-making and another resolution, that 
Mr. Adams, 

" by his attempt to introduce into this House fl 
petition from slaves for the abolition of slavery ijf 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 273 

the District of Columbia, has committed an outrage 
on the feelings of the people of a large portion of 
this Union ; a flagrant contempt on the dignity of this 
House ; and, by extending to slaves a privilege only 
belonging to freemen, directly incites the slave pop- 
ulation to insurrection ; and that the said member 
be forthwith called to the bar of the House and be 
censured by the Speaker." 

Mr. Lewis remained of opinion that it might 
be best for the Southern members to go home, 
— a proposition which afterwards drew forth a 
flaming speech from ^Ir. Alford, who, far from 
inclining to go home, was ready to stay "until 
this fair city is a field of Waterloo and this 
beautiful Potomac a river of blood." Mr. 
Pat ton, of Virginia, was the first to speak a 
few words to bring members to their senses, 
pertinently asking whether Mr. Adams had 
"attempted to offer" this petition, and whether 
it did indeed pray for the abolition of slavery. 
It might be well, he suggested, for his friends 
to be sure of their facts before going further. 
Then at last ]Mr. Adams, who had not at all 
lost his head in the general hurly-burly, rose 
and said, that amid these numerous resolutions 
charging him with " high crimes and misde- 
meanors" and calling him to the bar of the 
House to answer for the same, he had thought 
t proper to remain silent until the House should 

18 



274 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

take some action ; that he did not suppose 
that, if he should be brought to the bar of the 
House, he should be " struck mute by the pre- 
vious question " before he should have been 
given an opportunity to *' say a word or two " 
in his own defence. As to the facts : — "I did 
not present the petition," he said, " and I ap- 
peal to the Speaker to say that I did not. . . . 
I intended to take the decision of the Speaker 
before I went one step towards presenting or 
offering to present that petition." The con- 
tents of the petition, should the House ever 
choose to read it, he continued, would render 
necessary some amendments at least in the last 
resolution, since the prayer was that slavery 
should not be abolished ! *' The gentleman from 
Alabama may perchance find, that the object 
of this petition is precisely what he desires to 
accomplish ; and that these slaves who have 
sent this paper to me are his auxiliaries instead 
of being his opponents." 

These remarks caused some discomfiture 
among the Southern members, who were glad 
to have time for deliberation given them by a 
maundering speech from Mr. Mann, of New 
York, who talked about "the deplorable spec- 
tacle shown off every petition day by the hon 
:)rable member from Massachusetts in present. 
Jig the abolition petitions of his infatuated 



JOHN Q.UINCY ADAMS. 275 

friends and constituents , " charged Mr. Adams 
with running counter to the sense of the whole 
country with a " violence paralleled only b} 
the revolutionary madness of desperation," and 
twitted him with his political friendlessness, 
with his age, and with the insinuation of wan- 
ing faculties and judgment. This little phial 
having been emptied, Mr. Thompson arose and 
angrily assailed Mr. Adams for contemptuously 
trifling with the House, which charge he based 
upon the entirely unproved assumption that 
the petition was not a genuine document. He 
concluded by presenting new resolutions bet- 
ter adapted to the recent development of the 
case : — 

1. " That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by an 
effort to present a petition from slaves, has committed 
a gross contempt of this House. 

" 2. That the member from Massachusetts above- 
named, by creating the impression and leaving the 
House under sucli impression, that the said petition 
was for the abolition of slavery, when he knew that 
it was not, has trifled with the House. 

" 3. That the Hon. John Quincv Adams receive the 
i-ensure of the House for his conduct referred to in 
the preceding resolutions." 

Mr. Pinckney said thaf the avowal by Mr. 
Adams that he had in his possession the peti- 
tion of slaves was an admission of communi 



276 JOHN QUTNC7 ADAMS, 

cation with slaves, and so was evidence of col- 
lusion with them; and that Mr. Adams had 
thus rendered himself indictable foi- aiding and 
abetting insurrection. A fortiori^ then, was 
he not amenable to the censure of the House ? 
Mr. Haynes, of Georgia, forgetting that the pe- 
tition had not been presented, announced his 
intention of moving that it sliould be rejected 
subject only to a permission for its withdrawal; 
another member suggested that, if the petition 
should be disposed of by burning, it would be 
well to commit to the same combustion the 
gentleman who presented it. 

On the next day some more resolutions were 
ready, prepared by Dromgoole, who in his sobei* 
hours was regarded as the best parliamentarian 
in the Southern part}^ These were, that Mr. 
Adams 

" by stating in his place that he had in his posses- 
ion a paper purporting to be a petition from slaves, 
dud inquiring if it came within the meaning of a res- 
olution heretofore adopted (as preliminary to its 
presentation), has given color to the idea that slaves 
have the right of petition and of his readiness to be 
their organ ; and that for the same he deserves the 
censure of the House. 

"That the aforesaid John Qnincy Adams receive a 
censure from the Speaker in the presence of tht 
House of Representatives." 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 277 

Mr. Alford, in advocating these resolutions, 
talked about '' tliis awful crisis of our beloved 
country." Mr. Robertson, though opposing 
the resolutious, took pains '' strongly to con- 
demn . . . the contUu't of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts." Mr. Adams's colleague, Mr. 
Lincoln, spoke in his behalf, so also did Mr. 
Evans, of Maine; and Caleb Cusliing made a 
powerful speech upon his side. Otherwise than 
tins Mr. Adams was left to carr^*^ on the con- 
test single-handed ngainst the numerous array 
of assailants, all incensed and many fairly sav- 
age. Yet it is a striking proof of the dread 
in which even the united body of hot-blooded 
Southerners stood of this liard ligliter from the 
North, that as the debate was drawing to a close, 
after they had all said their say and just before 
his opportunity came for making his elabo- 
rate speech of defence they suddenly and op- 
portunely became ready to content themselves 
with a mild resolution, which condemned gen- 
erally the presentation of petitions from slaves, 
and, for the disposal of this particular case, 
recited that Mr. Adams had ''solemnly dis- 
claimed all design of doing anything disrespect- 
ful to the House," and had " avowed his inten- 
tion not to offer to present " to the House the 
petition of tliis kind held by him that ' there, 
fore all further proceedings in regard to his 



278 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

conduct do now cease." A sneaking effort bj 
Mr. Vanderpoel to close Mr. Adams's mouth 
by moving the previous question involved too 
much cowardice to be carried ; and so on Febru- 
ary 9 the sorely bated man was at last able to 
begin his final speech. He conducted his de- 
fence with singular spirit and ability, but at too 
great length to admit of even a sketch of what 
he said. He claimed the right of petition for 
slaves, and established it so far as argument can 
establish anything. He alleged that all he had 
done was to ask a question of the Speaker, and 
if he was to be censured for so doing, then hovv 
much more, he asked, was the Speaker deserv- 
ing of censure who had even put the same 
question to the House, and given as his reason 
for so doing that it was not only of novel but 
of difficult import ! He repudiated the idea 
that any member of the House could be held 
by a grand jury to respond for words spoken 
in debate, and recommended the gentlemen 
who had indulged in such preposterous threats 
*' to study a little the first principles of civil 
Uberty," excoriating them until they actually 
irose and tried to explain away their own lan- 
guage. He cast infinite ridicule upon the un- 
happy expression of Dromgoole, " giving coloi 
to an idea." Referring to the difficulty which 
he encountered by reason of the variety anc*, 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 279 

disorder of the resolutions and charges against 
him with which "gentlemen from the South 
had pounced down upon him like so many 
eagles upon a dove,'" — there was an exquisite 
Barcasm in the simile! — he said: "When I 
take up one idea, before I can give color to 
the idea, it has already changed its form and 
presents itself for consideration under other 
colors. . . . What defence can be made aojainst 
this new crime of giving color to ideas? " As 
for trifling with the House by presenting a 
petition which in the course of debate bad be- 
come pretty well known and acknowledged to 
be a hoax designed to lead Mr. Adams into a 
position of embarrassment and danger, he dis- 
claimed any such motive, reminding members 
that he had given warning, when beginning to 
present his petitions, that he was suspicious 
that some among them might not be genuine.^ 

1 Mr. Adams afterward said : " I believed the petition signed 
by female names to be genuine. ... I had suspicions that the 
w.ther, purporting to be from slaves, came really from the hand 
of a master who had prevailed on his slaves to sign it, that 
they might have the appearance of imploring the members 
from the North to cease offering petitions for their emancipa- 
tion, which could have no other tendency than to aggravate 
their servitude, and of being so impatient under the operation 
of petitions in their favor as to pray that the Northern mem 
bers who should persist in presenting them should be ex- 
oelled." It was a part of the prayer of the petition that Mr. 
Adams should be expelled if he should continue tc present 
abolition petitions. 



280 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Bui while denying all intention of trifling with 
the House, he rejected the mercy extended to 
him !n the last of the long series of resolutions 
before that body. " I disclaim not," he said, 
" any particle of what I have done, not a sin- 
gle word of what I have said do I imsay ; nay, 
1 am ready to do and to sa}^ the same to-mor- 
row." He had no notion of aiding in making 
a loophole through which his bkmdering en- 
emies might escape, even though he himself 
should be accorded the privilege of crawling 
through it with them. At times during his 
speech '' there was great agitation in the 
House," but when he closed no one seemed am- 
bitious to reply. His enemies had learned 
anew a lesson, often taught to them before and 
often to be impressed upon them again, that it 
was perilous to come to close quarters vrith Mr. 
Adams. They gave up all idea of censuring 
him, and were content to apply a very mild 
emollient to their own smarting wounds in the 
dhape of a resolution, to the effect that slaves 
did not possess the right of petition secured by 
the Constitution to the people of the United 
States. 

In the winter of 1842-3 the questions arising 
out of the affair of the Creole rendered the 
position then held by Mr. Adams at the head o' 
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs ex 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 281 

ceedingly distasteful to the slave-holders. On 
January 21, 1842, a somewhat singular mani- 
festation of this feeling was made when Mr. 
Adams himself presented a petition from Geor- 
gia praying for his removal from this Chair- 
manship. Upon this he requested to be heard 
in his own behalf. The Southern party, not 
sanguine of any advantage from debating the 
matter, tried to lay it on the table. The peti- 
tion was alleged by Habersham, of Georgia, to 
be undoubtedly another hoax. But Mr. Adams, 
loath to lose a good opportunity, still claimed 
to be heard on the charges made against him 
by the 'Mnfamous slave-holders." Mr. Smith, of 
Virginia, said that the House had lately given 
Mr. Adams leave to defend himself against the 
charge of monomania, and asked whether he 
was doing so. Some members cried *' Yes ! 
Yes ! " ; others shouted " No ! he is establishing 
the fact." The wrangling was at last brought 
to an end by the Speaker's declaration, that the 
petition must lie over for the present. But the 
scene had been only the prelude to one much 
longer, fiercer, and more exciting. No sooner 
was the document thus temporarily disposed of 
than Mr. Adams rose and presented the peti- 
tion of forty-five citizens of Haverhill, Massa- 
chusetts, praying the House "immediately to 
adopt measures peaceably to dissolve the union 



282 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 

of these States," for the alleged cause of the 
incompatibility between free and slave-holding 
communities. He moved " its reference to a 
select committee, with instructions to report 
an answer to the petitioners showing the rea- 
sons why the prayer of it ought not to be 
granted." 

In a moment the House was aflame with ex- 
citement. The numerous members who hated 
Mr. Adams thought that at last he was experi- 
encing the divinely sent madness which fore- 
runs destruction. Those who sought his polit- 
ical annihilation felt that the appointed and 
glorious hour of extinction had come ; those 
who had writhed beneath the castigation of his 
invective exulted in the near revenge. While 
one said that the petition should never have 
been brought within the walls of the House, 
and another wished to burn it in the presence 
of the members, Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, offered 
a resolution, that in presenting the petition 
Mr. Adams " had justly incurred the censure of 
the House." Some objection was made to this 
resolution as not being in order ; but Mr. Ad- 
ams said that he hoped that it would be re- 
ceived and debated and that an opportunity 
would be given him to speak in his own de- 
fence ; " especially as the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia had thought proper to play second fiddle 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 283 

fco his colleague ^ from Accomac." Mr. Gilmer 

retorted that he *' played second fiddle to no 

man. He was no fiddler, but was endeavoring 

to prevent the music of him who, 

* In the space of one revolving moon, 
Was statesman, poet, fiddler, and buffoon.'" 

The resolution was then laid on the table. The 
House rosGj and Mr. Adams went home and 
noted in his diary, '' evening in meditation," 
for which indeed he had abundant cause. On 
the following day Thomas F. Marshall, of Ken- 
tucky, offered a substitute for Gilmer's resolu- 
tion. This new fulmination had been prepared 
in a caucus of forty members of the slave-hold- 
ing party, and was long and carefully framed. 
Its preamble recited, in substance, that a pe- 
tition to dissolve the Union, proposing to 
Congress to destroy that which the several 
members had solemnly and officially sworn to 
support, was a " high breach of privilege, a 
contempt offered to this House, a direct propo- 
sition to the Legislature and each member of 
it to commit perjury, and involving necessarily 
in its execution and its consequences the de- 
struction of our country and the crime of higli 
treason : " wherefore it was to be resolved that 
Mr. Adams, in presenting a petition for dissolu- 
tion, had "offered the deepest iniignitv to the 

^ Henry A. Wise. 



284 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

House" and "an insult to the people;" that 
If " this outrage" should be "permitted to pass 
unrebuked and unpunished " he would have 
" disgraced his country ... in the eyes of the 
whole world ; " that for this insult and this 
"■wound at the Constitution and existence of his 
country, the peace, the security and liberty of 
the people of these States " he " might well be 
held to merit expulsion from the national coun- 
cils ; " and that '' the House deem it an act of 
grace and mercy when they only inflict upon 
him their severest censure;" that so much they 
must do " for the maintenance of their own 
purity and dignity ; for the rest they turned 
him over to his own conscience and the indig- 
nation of all true American citizens." 

These resolutions were then advocated by 
Mr. Marshall at great length and with extreme 
bitterness. Mr. Adams replied shortly, stating 
that he should wish to make his full defence at 
a later stage of the debate. Mr. Wise followed 
in a personal and acrimonious harangue ; Mr. 
Everett^ gave some little assistance to Mr. Ad- 
ams, and the House again adjourned. The fol- 
lowing day Wise continued his speech, very 
lilaborately. When he closed, Mr. Adams, who 
had '' determined not to interrupt him till h« 
had discharged his full cargo of filthy invec- 
tire,'' rose to "make a preliminary point." H# 

I ITnrace Everett of Vermont. 



JOHN QUIXCT ADAMS. 285 

questioned the right of the House to entertaiu 
Marshall's resolutions since the preamble as- 
sumed him to be guilty of the crimes of subor- 
nation of perjury and treason, and the resolu- 
tions themselves censured him as if he had been 
found guilty ; whereas in fact he had not been 
tried upon these charges and of course had not 
been convicted. If he was to be broufrht to 
trial upon them he asserted his right to have 
the proceedings conducted before a jurv of his 
peers, and that the House was not a tribunal 
having this authority. But if he was to be 
tried for contempt, for which alone he could 
lawfully be tried by the House, still there were 
an hundred members sittinix on its benches who 
were morally disqualified to judge him, who 
could not give him an impartial trial, because 
they were prejudiced and the question was one 
" on which their personal, pecuniary, and most 
sordid interests were at stake." Such consid- 
erations, he said, ought to prevent many gen- 
tlemen from voting, as Mr. Wise had avowed 
that they would prevent him. Here Wise in- 
terrupted to disavow that he was influenced by 
?iny such reasons, but rather, he said, by the 
"personal loathing, dread, and contempt I feel 
for the man." Mr. A dams, continuing after this 
pleasant interjection, admitted that he was in 
•he j)ower of the majority, who might try him 



286 JOHN QVINCY ADAM 8. 

ftgainst law and condemn Mm against right ii 
they would. 

" If they say they will try me, they must try me. 
If they say they will punish me, they must punish 
me. But if they say tiiat in peace and mercy they 
will spare me expulsion, I disdain and cast away their 
mercy ; and I ask them if they will come to such a 
trial and expel me. I defy them. I have constituents 
to go to who will have something to say if this House 
expels me. Nor will it be long before the gentlemen 
will see me here again." 

Such was the fierce temper and indomitable 
courage of this inflexible old man ! He flung 
contempt in the face of those who had him 
wholly in their power, and in the same breath 
in which he acknowledged that power he dared 
them to use it. He charged Wise with the 
guilt of innocent blood, in connection with cer- 
tain transactions in a duel, and exasperated 
that gentleman into crying out that the "charge 
made by the gentleman from Massachusetts was 
as base and black a lie as the traitor was base 
and black who uttered it." When he was asked 
by the Speaker to put his point of order in writ- 
ing, — his own request to the like effect in an- 
other case having been refused shortly before, 
'— he tauntingly congratulated that gentleman 
" upon his discovery of the expediency of having 
points of order reduced to writing — a fa vol 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 287 

^hicli he had repeatedly denied to me." When 
Mr. Wise was speaking, "I interrupted him oc- 
casionally," says Mr. Adams, "sometimes to 
provoke him into absurdity." As usual he was 
left to fight out his desperate battle substan- 
tially single-handed. Only Mr. Everett occa- 
sionally helped him a very little ; while one or 
two others who spoke against the resolutions 
were careful to explain that they felt no per- 
sonal good-will towards Mr. Adams. But he 
faced the odds courageously. It was no new 
thing for him to be pitted alone against a ''solid 
South." Outside the walls of the House he had 
some sympathy and some assistance tendered 
him by individuals, among others by Rufus 
Choate then in the Senate, and by his own col- 
leagues from Massachusetts. This support aided 
and cheered him somewhat, but could not pre- 
vent substantially the whole burden of the labor 
and brunt of the contest from bearing upon him 
alone. Among the external manifestations of 
feeling, those of hostility were naturally largely 
in the ascendant. The newspapers of Washing- 
ton — the Globe and the National Intelligencer 
— which reported the debates, daily filled their 
columns with all the abuse and invective which 
was poured foi th against him, while they gave 
the most meagre statements, or none at all, of 
what he said in his own defence Among other 



288 JOHN QUIN'Cr adams. 

amenities he received from North Carolina an 
anonymous letter threatening him with assas- 
Bination, having also an engraved portrait of 
him with the mark of a rifle-ball in the fore- 
head, and the motto " to stop the music of 
John Quincy Adams," etc., etc. This missive 
he read and displayed in the House, but it was 
received with profound indifference by men who 
would not have greatly objected to the execu- 
tion of the barbarous threat. 

The prolonged struggle cost him deep anx- 
iety and sleepless nights, which in the declining 
years of a laborious life told hardly upon his 
aged frame. But against all odds of numbers 
and under all disadvantages of circumstances 
the past repeated itself and Mr. Adams alone 
won a victory over all the cohorts of the South. 
Several attempts had been made during the 
debate to lay the whole subject on the table. 
Mr. Adams said that he would consent to this 
simply because his defence would be a very 
long affair, and he did not wish to have the 
time of the House consumed and the business 
of the nation brought to a stand solely for the 
consideration of his personal affairs. These prop- 
ositions failing, he began his speech and soon 
was making such headway that even his adver 
Baries were constrained to see that the opportu 
aity which they had conceived to be within theii 



JOHN QnJNCY ADAMS. 289 

g^'asp was eluding them, as had so often hap- 
pened before. Accordingly on February 7 the 
motion to "lay the whole subject on the table 
forever " was renewed and carried by one hun- 
dred and six votes to ninetv- three. The House 
then took up the original petition and lefused 
to receive it by one hundred and sixty-six to 
forty. No sooner was this consummation reached 
than the irrepressible champion rose to his feet 
and proceeded w^ith his budget of anti-slavery 
petitions, of which he " presented nearly two 
hundred, till the House adjourned." 

Within a very short time there came further 
and convincing proof that Mr. Adams was vic- 
tor. On Februarv 26 he writes : " D. D. Bar- 
nard told me he had received a petition from 
his District, signed by a small number of very 
respectable persons, praying for a dissolution ot 
the Union. He said he did not know what to 
do with it. I dined with him." By March 14 
this dinner bore fruit. Mr. Barnard had made 
ip his mind "what to do with it." He pre- 
jented it, with a motion that it be referred to a 
select committee with instructions to report ad- 
versely to its prayer. The well- schooled House 
now took the presentation without a ripple of 
excitement, and was content with simply voting 
not to receive the petition. 

In the midst of the toil and anxiety impost d 

19 



290 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. I 

upon Mr. Adams by this effort to censure azid 
disgrace bim, tbe scbeme, already referred to, 
for displacing bim from the chairmanship of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs bad been actively 
prosecuted. He was notified that tbe Southern 
members had formed a cabal for removing him 
and putting Caleb Cushing in bis place. The 
plan was, however, temporarily checked, and so 
soon as Mr. Adams had triumphed in tbe House 
the four Southern members of the committee 
sent to the House a paper begging to be ex- 
cused from further services on the committee, 
" because from recent occurrences it was doubt- 
ful whether the House would remove the chair- 
man, and they were unwilling to serve with one 
in whom they had no confidence." The fugi- 
tives were granted, " by a shout of acclamation," 
the excuse which they sought for so welcome a 
reason, and the same was also done for a fifth 
member. Three more of the same party, nomi- 
nated to fill these vacancies, likewise asked to be 
excused, and were so. Their letters preferring 
this request were " so insulting personally " to 
Mr. Adams as to constitute '' gross breaches of 
privilege." " The Speaker would have refused 
to receive or present them had they referred to 
any other man in the House." They were pub- 
lished, but Mr. Adams, after some hesitation, 
determined not to give them the importance 



JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 291 

which would result from any public notice in 
the House upon his part. He could afford to 
Keep silence, and judged wisely in doing so. 

Amid all the animosity and rancor enter- 
tained towards Mr. Adams, there yet lurked 
a degree of respect for his courage, honesty, 
and ability which showed itself upon occasion, 
doubtless not a little to the surprise of the 
members themselyes who were hardly conscious 
that they entertained such sentiments until 
startled into a manifestation of them. An em- 
inent instance of this is to be found in the story 
of the troubled days preceding the organization 
of the twenty-sixth Congress. On December 
2, 1839, the members elect of that body came 
together in Washington, with the knowledge 
that the seats of dve gentlemen from New Jer- 
sey, who brought with them the regular guber- 
natorial certificate of their election, would be 
contested by five other claimants. According 
to custom Garland, clerk of the last House, 
called the assemblage to order and began the 
roll-call. When he came to New Jersey he 
called the name of one member from that State, 
and then said that there were five other seats 
which were contested, and that not feeling 
authorized to decide the dispute he would pass 
over the names of the New Jersey members 
ind proceed with the roll till the Hjuse should 



292 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

be formed, when the question could be de 
cided. Plausible as appeared this abstentioL 
from an exercise of authority in so grave a dis- 
pute, it was nevertheless really an assumption 
and not a deprecation of power, and as such 
was altogether unjustifiable. The clerk's sole 
business was to call the names of those persons 
Mio presented the usual formal credentials ; he 
had no right to take cognizance that the seats 
of any such persons might be the subject of a 
contest, which could properly be instituted, con- 
ducted, and determined only before and by the 
House itself when organized.. But his course 
was not innocent of a purpose. So evenly was 
the House divided that the admission or ex- 
clusion of these four members in the first in- 
stance would determine the po itical complexion 
of the body. The members holding the certifi- 
cates were Whigs ; if the clerk could keep them 
out until the organization o^ the House should 
be completed, then the Democrats would con- 
trol that organization, would elect their Speaker, 
and through him would make up the commit- 
tees. 

Naturally enough this arrogation of power 
by the clerk, the motives and consequences of 
which were abundantly obvious, raised a ter 
rible storm. The debate continued till four 
j'clock in the afternoon, when a motion wai 



JOUN QUINCY ADAMS. 293 

made to adjourn. The clerk said that he could 
put no question, not even of adjournment, 
till the House should be formed. But there 
was a general cry to adjourn, and the clerk 
declared the House adjourned. Mr. Adams 
went home and wrote in his Diary tiiat the 
clerk's '' two decisions form together an insur- 
mountable objection to the transaction of any 
business, and an impossibility of organizing the 
House. . . . The most curious part of the case 
is, that his own election as clerk depends upon 
the exclusion of the New Jersey members." 
The next day was consumed in a fierce debate 
as to whether the clerk should be allowed to 
read an explanatory statement. Again the clerk 
refused to put the question of adjournment, 
but, *'upon inspection," declared an adjourn- 
ment. Some called out " a count ! a count ! " 
while most rushed out of the hall, and Wise 
cried loudl}^ " Now we are a mob ! " The next 
day there was moie violent debating, but no 
progress towards a decision. Various party 
leaders offered resolutions, none of which ac- 
complished anything. The condition was ridic- 
ulous, disgraceful, and not without serious pos* 
sibilities of danger. Neither did any light of 
Bncouragement break la any quarter. In the 
crisis there seemed, by suiden consent of all, to 
^ a turning towards Mi" Adams. Prominent 



294 JOHN aUINCY ADAMS. 

men of botli parties came to him and begged 
him to interfere. He was reluctant to plunge 
into the embroilment ; but the great urgency 
and the abundant assurances of support placed 
little less than actual compulsion upon liim. 
Accordingly on December 5 he rose to addresa 
the House. He was greeted as a Deua ex 
machina. Not speaking to the clerk, but turn- 
ing directly to the assembled members, he be- 
gan : " Fellow-citizens ! Members elect of the 
twenty-sixth Congress ! " He could not resist 
the temptation of administering a brief but se- 
vere and righteous castigatlon to Garland ; and 
then, ignoring that functionary altogether, pro- 
ceeded to beg the House to organize itself. To 
this end he said that he would offer a resolution 
" ordering the clerk to call the members from 
New Jersey possessing the credentials from the 
Governor of that State." There had been al- 
ready no lack of resolutions, but the difficulty 
lay in the clerk's obstinate refusal to put the 
question upon them. So now the puzzled cry 
went up : " How shall the question be put ? " 
" I intend to put the question myself," said the 
dauntless old man, wholly equal to the emer- 
gency. A tumult of applause resounded upon 
all sides. Rhett, of South Carolina, sprang up 
and offered a resolution, that Williams, of NortK 
arolina, the oldest member of the House, b^ 



r^ 

'U 



JOHN QDINCY ADAMS. 295 

appointed chairman of the meeting ; but upon 
objection by Williams, he substituted the name 
of Mr. Adams, and put the question. He was 
"answered by an almost universal shout in the 
affirmative." Whereupon Rhett and Williams 
conducted the old man to the chair. It was a 
proud moment. Wise, of Virginia, afterward 
said, addressing a complimentary speech to Mr. 
Adams, " and if, when you shall be gathered to 
your fathers, I were asked to select the words 
which in my judgment are calculated to give at 
once the best character of the man, I would in- 
scribe upon your tomb this sentence, ' I will put 
the question myself ! ' " Doubtless Wise and a 
good many more would have been glad enough 
to put almost any epitaph on a tombstone for 
Mr. Adams.^ It must, however, be acknowl- 
edged that the impetuous Southerners behaved 
very handsomely by their arch foe on this oc- 
casion, and were for once as chivalrous in fact 
as they always were in profession. 

Smooth water had by no means been reached 
when Mr. Adams was placed at the helm ; on 
the contrary, the buffetting became only the 
more severe when the members were no longer 

1 Not quite two years later pending a motion to reprimand 
Mr. Wise for fighting with a member on the floor of the 
House, that gentleman took pains rnsuJtingly to say, "that 
there was but one man in the House whose judgment he w»l 
mwilling to abide by," and that man was Mr. Adams. 



296 JORi'< QUINCY AD AM 8. 

restrained by a lurking dread of grave disastei 
if not of utter shipwreck. Between two bit- 
terly incensed and evenly divided parties en- 
gaged in a struggle for an important prize, Mr. 
Adams, having no strictly lawful authority per- 
taining to his singular and anomalous position, 
was hard taxed to perform his functions. It ia 
impossible to follow the intricate and acrimo- 
nious quarrels of the eleven days which suc- 
ceeded until on December 16, upon the eleventh 
ballot, R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, was elected 
Speaker, and Mr. Adams was relieved from the 
most arduous duty imposed upon him during 
his life. In the course of the debates there had 
been '' much vituperation and much equally 
unacceptable compliment " lavished upon him. 
After the organization of the House, there was 
Bome talk of moving a vote of thanks, but he 
entreated that it should not be done. " In the 
rancorous and bitter temper of the Adminis- 
tration party, exasperated by their disappoint- 
ment in losing their Speaker, the resolution of 
thanks," he said, " would have been lost if it 
had been offered." However this might have 
been, history has determined this occurrence 
to have been one of the most brilliant episode? 
in a life which had many distinctions. 

A few incidents indicative of respect must 
have been welcome enough in th(i solitary fight 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 297 

laden career of Mr. Adams. He needed some 
occasional encouragement to keep him from 
sinking into despondency ; for though he was of 
so unyielding and belligerent a disposition, of 
such nngracious demeanor, so uncompromising 
with friend and foe, yet he was a man of deep 
and strong feelings, and in a way even very sen- 
sitive though a proud reserve kept the secret of 
this quality so close that few suspected it. His 
Diary during his Congressional life shows a 
man doing his duty sternly rather than cheer- 
fully, treading resolutely a painful path, having 
the reward which attends upon a clear conscience, 
but neither light-hearted nor often even happy. 
Especially he was frequently disappointed at the 
returns which he received from others, and con- 
sidered himself " ill-treated by every public man 
whom circumstances had brought into competi- 
tion with him ; " they had returned his " acts of 
kindness and services" with "gross injustice." 
The reflection did not induce him to deflect his 
course in the least, but it was made with much 
bitterness of spirit. Toward the close of 1835 
he writes : — 

" AmoDg the dark spots in human nature which in 
the course of my life I have observed, the devices of 
rivals to ruin me have been sor^y pictures of the 
heart of man. . . . H. G. Otis, Theophilus Parsons, 
Timothy Pickering, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay 



298 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

Jonathan Russell, William H. Crawford, John C 
Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and John 
Davis, W. B. Giles, and John Randolph, have used 
ap their faculties in base and dirty tricks to thwart 
my progress in life and destroy my character." 

Truly a long and exhaustive list of enmities ! 
One can but suspect that a man of so many 
quarrels must have been quarrelsome. Certain 
it is, however, that in nearly every difference 
which Mr. Adams had in his life a question of 
right and wrong, of moral or political principle, 
had presented itself to him. His intention was 
always good, though his manner was so habit- 
ually irritating. He himself says that to nearly 
all these men — Russell alone specifically ex- 
cepted — he had ''returned good for evil," that 
he had " never wronged any one of them," and 
had even " neglected too much his self-defence 
against them." In October, 1833, he said : " I 
subject myself to so much toil and so much 
enmity, with so very little apparent fruit, that 
I sometimes ask myself whether I do not mis- 
take my own motives. The best actions of my 
dfe make me nothing but enemies." In Feb- 
ruary, 1841, he made a powerful speech in cas- 
tigation of Henry A. Wise, who had been up- 
holding in Southern fashion slavery, duelling, 
Rnd nullification. He received afterward some 
messages of praise and sympathy, but notec 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 299 

with pain that his colleagues thought it one of 
his " eccentric, wild, extravagant freaks of pas- 
sion ; " and with a pathetic sense of loneliness he 
adds : "All around me is cold and discouraging 
and my own feelings are wound up to a pitch 
that my reason can scarcely endure." A few 
days later he had the pleasure of hearing one of 
the members say, in a speech, that there was an 
opinion among many that Mr. Adams was in- 
sane and did not know what he said. While a 
fight was going on such incidents only fired his 
blood, but afterwards the reminiscence affected 
his spirits cruelly. 

In August, IS'IO, he writes that he has been 
twelve years submitting in silence to the " foul- 
,est and basest aspersions," to which it would 
have been waste of time to make reply, since 
the public ear had not been open to him. " Is 
the time arriving," he asks, "for me to speak? 
or must I go down to the grave and leave pos- 
terity to do justice to my father and to me? " 

He has had at least the advantage of saying 
his say to posterity in a very effective and con- 
vincing shape in that Diary, which so discom- 
fited and enraged General Jackson. There is 
plain enough speaking in its pages, which were 
a safety valve whereby much wrath escaped. 
xMr. Adams had the faculty of fi.rcible expres- 
«on when he chose to employ i"-, as maybe seen 



800 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

from a few specimen sentences. On March 28, 
1840, lie remarks that Atherton " this day emit- 
ted half an hour of his rotten breath against '' 
a pending bill. Atherton was infamous as the 
mover of the " gag " resolution, and Mr. Adams 
abhorred him accordingly. Duncan, of Cincin- 
nati, mentioned as " delivering a dose of balder- 
dash," is described as " the prime bully of the 
Kinderhook Democracy," without " perception 
of any moral distinction between truth and 
falsehood, ... a thorough-going hack-dema- 
gogue, coarse, vulgar, and impudent, with a 
vein of low humor exactly suited to the rabble 
of a popular city and equally so to the taste of 
the present House of Representatives." Other 
similar bits of that pessimism and belief in the 
deterioration of the times, so common in old 
men, occasionally appear. In August, 1835, he 
thinks that "the signs of the times are porten- 
tous. All the tendencies of legislation are to 
the removal of restrictions from the vicious and 
the guilty, and to the exercise of all the powers 
of government, legislative, judicial, and exec- 
utive, by lawless assemblao;es of individuals." 
December 27, 1838, he looks upon the Senate 
and the House, '' the cream of the land, the 
culled darlings of fifteen millions," and ob- 
lerves that " the remarkable phenomenon that 
they present is the level of iniellect and o^ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 301 

morals upon wbicli they stand ; and this uni- 
versal mediocrity is the basis upon which the 
liberties of this nation repose." In July, 1840, 
he thinks that 

" parties are falling into profligate factions. 1 
have seen this before ; but the worst symptom now is 
the change in the manners of the people. The con- 
tinuance of the present Administration . . . will open 
wide all the flood-gates of corruption. Will a change 
produce reform ? Pause and ponder ! Slavery the 
Indians, the public lands, the collection and disburse- 
ment of public money, the tariff, and foreign affairs: 
— what is to become of them ? " 

On January 29, 1841, Henry A. Wise uttered 
" a motley compound of eloquence and folly, of 
braggart impudence and childish vanity, of self- 
laudation and Virginian narrow-mindedness." 
After him Hubbard, of Alabama, " began grunt- 
ing against the tariff." Three days later Black, 
of Georgia, " poured forth his black bile " for 
an hour and a half. The next week we find 
Clifford, of Maine, " muddily bothering his 
trickster invention " to get over a rule of the 
House, and " snapping like a mackerel at a red 
rag " at the suggestion of a way to do so. In 
Tuly, 1841, we again hear of Atherton as a 
" cross-grained numskull . . snarling against 
the loan bill." With such peppery passages 
.11 great abundance the Diary is thickly and 



B02 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

piquantly besprinkled. They are not always 
pleasant, perhaps not even always amusing, but 
they display the marked element of censorious- 
ness in Mr. Adams's character, which it is nec- 
essary to appreciate in order to understand some 
parts of his career. 

If Mr. Adams never had the cheerfid sup- 
port of popularity, so neither did he often have 
the encouragement of success. He said that 
he was paying in his declining years for the 
good luck wliich had attended the earlier por- 
tion of his life. On December 14, 1833, he 
calculates that he has three fourths of the peo- 
ple of Massaclnisetts against him, and by es- 
tranging the anti-Masons he is about to become 
obnoxious to the whole. " My public life will 
terminate by the alienation from me of all man- 
kind. ... It is the experience of all ages that 
the people grow weary of old men. I cannot 
flatter myself that I shall escape the common 
law of our nature." Yet he acknowleds^es that 
he is unable to '' abstract himself from tlie great 
questions which agitate the country." Soon 
after he again writes in the same vein : '* To 
be forsaken by all mankind seems to be the 
destiny that awaits my last days." August 6, 
1885, he gives as his reason for not accepting 
an invitation to deliver a discourse, that " in 
stead of having any beneficial influence upor 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 803 

the public mind, it would be turned as an in- 
Btrument of obloquy against myself.*' So it 
had been, as he enumerates, with his exertions 
against Freemasonry, his labors for internal 
improvement, for the manufacturing interest, 
for domestic industry, for free labor, for the 
disinterested aid then lately brought by him to 
Jackson in the dispute with France ; " so it 
will be to the end of my political life." 

When to unpopularity and reiterated disap- 
pointment we add the physical ills of old age, it 
no longer surprises us to find Mr. Adams at 
times harsh and bitter beyond the excuse of the 
occasion. That he was a man of strong phys- 
ique and of extraordinary powers of endur- 
ance, often surpassing those of yomig and vigor- 
ous men, is evident. For example, one day in 
March, 1840, he notes incidentaHv : ''I walked 
home and found my family at dinner. From 
my breakfast yesterday morning until one this 
afternoon, twenty-eight hours, I had fasted." 
Many a time he showed like, if not quite equal 
vigor. But he had been a hard worker all his 
life, and testing the powers of one's constitution 
does not tend to their preservation ; he was by 
no means free from the woes of the flesh or from 
the depression which comes with years and the 
dread of decrepitude. Already as early as 
October 7, 1833, he fears that his health is " ir 



804 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

retrievable ; " he gets but five hours a night oi 
" disturbed unquiet sleep — full of tossings." 
February 17, 1834, his " voice was so hoarse and 
feeble that it broke repeatedly, and he could 
Bcarcely articulate. It is gone forever," he very 
mistakenly but despondingly adds, "and it ip 
in vain for me to contend against the decay of 
time and nature." His enemies found littla 
truth in this foreboding for many sessions there- 
after. Only a year after he had performed his 
feat of fasting for twenty-eight hours of busi- 
ness, he received a letter from a stranger advis- 
ing hira to retire. He admits that perhaps he 
ought to do so, but says that more than sixty 
years of public life have made activity necessary 
to him ; it is the " weakness of his nature " 
which he has " intellect enough left to perceive 
but not energy to control," so that "the world 
will retire from me before I shall retire from 
the world." 

The brief sketch which can be given in a 
volume of this size of so long and so busy a 
life does not suffice even to indicate all its 
many industries. The anti-slavery labors oi 
Mr. Adams during his Congressional career 
were alone an abundant occupation for a man 
in the prime of life ; but to these he added a 
wonderful list of other toils and interests. H« 
was not only an incessant studt nt in history 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 305 

politics, and literature, but he also constantly 
invaded the domain of science. He was Chair- 
man of the Congressional Committee on the 
Smithsonian bequest, and for several years he 
gave much time and attention to it, striving to 
give the fund a direction in favor of science ; 
he hoped to make it subservient to apian which 
he had long cherished for the building of a 
noble national observatory. He had much 
committee work ; he received many visitors , 
he secured hours of leisure for his favorite pur- 
suit of composing poetry ; he delivered an enor- 
mous number of addresses and speeches upon 
all sorts of occasions ; he conducted an exten- 
sive correspondence ; he was a ver}^ devout man, 
regularly going to church and reading three 
chapters in his Bible every day ; and he kept 
up faithfully his colossal Diary. For several 
months in the midst of Congrressional duties he 
devoted great labor, thought, and anxiety to 
the famous cause of the slaves of the Amistad, 
in which he was induced to act as counsel be- 
fore the Supreme Court. Such were the labors 
of his declining age. To men of ordinary cali- 
bre the multiplicity of his acquirements and 
achievements is confounding and incredible. 
He worked his brain and his body as unspar- 
ingly as if they had been machines insensible to 
the pleasure or nec^essity of rest. Surprisingly 

90 



306 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

did they submit to his exacting treatment, last* 
ing in good order and condition far beyond 
what was then the average of life and vigorous 
faculties among his contemporaries engaged in 
public affairs. 

In August, 1842, while he was still tarrying 
in the unwholesome heats of Washington, he 
had some symptoms which he thought premon- 
itory, and he speaks of the next session of Con- 
gress as probably the last which he should ever 
attend. March 25, 1844, he gives a painful 
sketch of himself. Physical disability, he says, 
must soon put a stop to his Diary. That morn- 
ing he had risen " at four, and with smarting, 
bloodshot eyes and shivering hand, still sat 
down and wrote to fill up the chasm of the 
closing days of last week." If his remaining 
days were to be few he was at least resolved to 
make them long for purposes of unremitted la* 
bor. 

But he had one great joy and distinguished 
triumph still in store for him. From the time 
when the "gag" rule bad been first established, 
Mr. Adams had kept up an unbroken series of 
attacks upon it at all times and by all means. 
At the beginning of tlie several sessions, when 
the rules were established by the House, he 
always moved to strike out this one. Year 
after year his motion was voted down, but yeaj 



JOHN aUINCY ADAM8. 307 

after year he renewed it with invincible per- 
Beverance. The majorities against him began 
to dwindle till they became almost impercep- 
tible ; in 1842 it was a majority of four; in 
1843, of three ; in 1844 the struggle was pro- 
tracted for weeks, and Mr. Adams all but car- 
ried the day. It was evident that victory was 
not far off, and a kind fate had destined him to 
live not only to see but himself to win it. On 
December 3, 1844, he made his usual motion 
and called for the yeas and nays ; a motion was 
made to lay his motion on the table, and upon 
that also the question was taken by yeas and 
nays — eighty-one yeas, one hundred and four 
nays, and his motion was not laid on the table. 
The question was then put upon it, and it was 
carried by the handsome vote of one hundred 
and eight to eighty. In that moment the 
" gag " rule became a thing of the past, and 
Mr. Adams had conquered in his last fight. 
" Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God ! " 
he writes in recording the event. A week aft- 
erwards some anti-slavery petitions were re- 
ceived and actually referred to the Committee 
on the District of Columbia. This glorious con- 
summation having been achieved, this advanced 
stage in the long conflict having been reached, 
Mr. Adams could not hope for life to see an- 
other goal passed. His work was nearly done ; 



308 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

he had grown aged, and had worn himself out 
faithfully toiling in the struggle which must 
hereafter be fought through its coming phases 
and to its final success by others, younger men 
than he, though none of them certainly having 
over him any other militant advantage save 
only the accident of youth. 

His mental powers were not less than at any 
time in the past when, on November 19, 1846, 
he was struck by paralysis in the street in Bos- 
ton. He recovered from the attack, however, 
sufficiently to resume his duties in Washington 
some three months later. His reappearance 
in the House was marked by a pleasing inci- 
dent : all the members rose together ; business 
was for the moment suspended ; his old accus- 
tomed seat was at once surrendered to him by 
the gentleman to whom it had fallen in the 
allotment, and he was formally conducted to it 
by two members. After this, though punctual 
in attendance, he only once took part in debate. 
On February 21, 1848, he appeared in his seat 
as usual. At half-past one in the afternoon 
the Speaker was rising to put a question, when 
he was suddenly interrupted by cries of " Stop ! 
Slop ! — Mr. Adams ! " Some gentlemen near 
Mr. Adams had thought that he was striving 
to rise to address the Speaker, when in an in 
Btant he fell over insensible. The members 
thronged around him in great confusion. Tha 



JOHN QUINC7 ADAMS. 301 

House hastily adjourned. He was placed on g 
Bofa and removed first to the hall of the ro- 
tunda and then to the Speaker's room. Medi- 
cal men were in attendance but could be of nc 
service in the presence of death. The stern 
old fighter lay dying almost on the very field o1 
BO many battles and in the very tracks in 
which he had so often stood erect and uncon- 
querable, taking and dealing so many mighty 
blows. Late in the afternoon some inarticu- 
late mutterings were construed into the words, 
" Thank the ofiicers of the House." Soon again 
he said intelligibly, " This is the last of earth ! 
I am content I " It was his extreme utterance. 
He lay thereafter unconscious till the evening 
of the 23d, when he passed quietly away. 

He lies buried '' under the portal of the 
church at Quiney " beside his wife, who sur- 
vived him four years, his father and his mother. 
The memorial tablet inside the church bears 
upon it the words " Alteri Saeculo," — surely 
never more justly or appropi-iately applied tc 
any man than to John Quiney Adams, hardly 
ttbused and cruelly misappreciated in his own 
day but whom subsequent generations already 
begin to honor as one of the greatest of Amer- 
ican statesmen, not only preeminent in ability 
and acquirements, but even more to be honored 
for profound, immutable honesty of purpose 
ind broad, noble humanity of aims. 



INDEX. 



Idajis, Dr , EDgiisli Commissioner 
to treat for peace, 77. 

idams, John, Minister to Paris, 4 ; 
Minister to St. James's, 14 ; be- 
comes President, 23 ; nominates 
his son Minister to Prussia, 24 ; 
and recalls him, 24 ; leares W'ash- 
ngton, 25 ; breaks the Federal 
3arty, 26. 

J »ams John Quincy, birth, 1 ; nam- 
ing, i ; childhood during Revolu- 
tion, 2 ; letter to his father, 3 ; 
goes to Paris, 4; letter to his 
mother, 5 ; begins his diary, 6 ; 
depicted therein, 10 et se(/. ; life 
abroad, in Russia and at Paris, 13, 
14 ; returns home and goes to 
IlarvarJ College, 15-17 ; studies 
law and begins practice, 17 ; pub- 
lishes political papers of " Pubii- 
cola,'' " Marcellus,'" " Colum- 
bus," and " Barnevelt," 18 ; .Min- 
ister to the Hague. 19-21 ; diplo- 
matic en'and"i7rT5nglaiid, 21 ; en- 
gagement and marriage, 22, 23 ; 
transferred to court of Portugal, 
23 ; Minister to Prussia, 24 ; re- 
called, 24 ; returns to the law, 
24 ; political prospects and con- 
nections, 25, 27 ; ill-treated by 
Jefferson, 28 ; elected to St^xte 
Senate, 28 ; offends the Federal- 
ists by his independence, 29 ; 
elected to United States Senate, 
?0 ; goes to Washington, 30 ; 
hardly treated there by Federal- 
ists, 31 : unpopular in the Senate, 
32 ft seq. ; relationship with Pick- 
ei-ing, 32 ; action concerning ad- 
mission of Louisiana, 35 ; con- 
terning impeachment of Judge 
Chase, 36 ; improvement of his 
position in the Senate, 36 ; posi- 
tion concerning leiations of 
Lai ted States with England, 38 
H $eq. ; ^isagreemeut with Feder- 



alists, 40, 50; supports non-!a« 
portation act, 40, and see 49 ; on 
the decrees and orders of Franc* 
and England, 42, 47 et seq. ; behaT- 
ior concerning affair of Chesa- 
peake and Leopard, 51 ; expelled 
from Federal party, 52, 56 et seq. , 
supports the embargo, 52 ; resigns 
his Senatorship, 57 ; his course 
considered, 57 et seq. ; justified in 
leaving the Federal party, 61 et 
seq,; effects of his doing so, 64 ; 
relationship with Republican 
party, 65, 66 ; his own reflections 
at this time, 66, 67 ; nominated 
Minister to Russia, 69, 70 ; life 
and services in Russia, 71-75; ap- 
pointed Commissioner to treat for 
peace with Great Britain, 75 et 
seq. ; his share in the ensuing ne- 
gotiation, 77-93; relationship 
with Clay, 84 ; habits, 85; opin- 
ion as to the Mississippi and the 
fisheries, 88-90 ; appointed Minis- 
ter to England, 98; his stay and 
services there, 99-101 : relations 
with Canning and Castlereagh, 
99, 100 ; appointed Secretary of 
State by President Monroe, 101 ; 
in \Vashington society, lu4 ; can- 
didate for Presidency, 106 ; pol- 
icy towards revolted Spanish col- 
onies, 110 ; his negotiations with 
Don Onis, the Spanish Minister, 
112 et seq. ; concludes the treaty., 
116 ; but at once encounters mis- 
understandings, 117, lis ; and 
thereupon advises vigorous meas- 
ures 119 ; reopens negotiations 
with Vives, 124 ; finally concludes 
treaty, 125, 126 ; feeling about 
slavery at time of Missouri Com 
promise, 120-124 ; sends in h 
report on weights and measures 
127 ; dignified behaTior in foreign 
relations, 128 et seq. / originat«i 



312 



INDEX. 



the Monroe Doctrine, 131, 132, 
137 views concerniLgac(^uisition 
of territory by United States, 
131 ; opposition to " Holy Alli- 
ance," 133 ; receives droll propo- 
sition from Portugal, 135; holds 
United States aloof from Euro- 
pean entanglements, 135-137 ; in- 
terviews with Stratford Canning 
as to slave-trade, 136, 138-140 ; 
angry discnssion with Stratford 
Canning, 141-149 ; feelings to- 
wards Mr. Clay during Presiden- 
tial campaign, 152-155 ; hatred of 
Randolph, 154 ; and of Crawford, 
155-157 ; behavior towards Gen- 
eral Jackson, 159-164 ; rules of 
conduct during Presidential cam- 
paign, 164-167 ; feelings concern- 
ing the campaign, 167-169 ; elec- 
toral vote for, 170 : elected by in- 
fluence of Clay, 170-174 ; f_eelings 
concerning his election, 175-177 ; 
his inauguration, 176; enmity 
with Jackson, 176 ; nominates 
his Cabinet, 178 ; makes Rufus 
King Minister to England, 178 ; 
principle as to distribution of 
offices, 179-181 ; charged with 
having bargained with Clay tor 
his election, 181-189; political 
prospects of his administration, 

189 et seq.; relations towards the 
South and political parties, 189- 
193 ; Jacksonian opposition to his 
administration, 193 ; nominates 
emissaries to Panama Congress, 

190 ; internal policy of his admin- 
istration, 194-196 ; at the Chesa- 
peake and Ohio Canal, 195 ; true 
issue between him and Jackson, 
196-201 ; refuses to propitiate 
support, 201-205 ; relations with 
his Cabinet, 205-207 ; routino of 
daily life as President, 207 ; 
threatened with assassination, 
205 ; political charges against, 
209, 210 ; pungent passages from 
lis diary, 211-213; beaten in 

Presidential campaign of 1827, 
213 ; opinion of Von Hoist con- 
cerning, 214 ; feelings concerning 
his defeat, 215 : quarrel with the 
thirteen Federalists, 216-220 his 
finances, 221 ; his literary hahits, 
222-224 ; election to Congress, 226, 
233; ae an orator, 22,■^; in Congress, 
230-234 ; position with regard to 
the tariff, South Carolina, and 
President Jackson, 235-2;J5 , gen 



erally in opposition to Jackson' 
administration, 239 ; but aids him 
in affair with France, 239, 240 ; 
personal relations with Jackson, 
240-243 ; his relations towards 
abolicion and slavery in Congress, 
244 et seq. ; his function in the 
anti-slavery contest, 245, 246 ; 
consequent unpopularity, 247; 
but supported by some, 248 ; pre- 
sents anti-slavery petitions, 249- 
252, 254, 257-262; opposes the 
"gag" rule, 251, 252, 257, 259, 
261 ; relations with abolitionists, 
255 et seq ; supported by his con- 
stituents, 256 ; presents petition 
of Sherloch S. Gregory, 257 ; ef- 
forts concerning Texan petitions, 
etc., 257 ; concerning petitions re- 
lating to llayti, 260; declares the 
war powers of the Government 
to include abolition of slavery, 
262-266 ; opposes annexation of 
Texas, 266, 267 ; presents petition 
for his own expulsion, 268, 269 : 
presents petition from slaves, 270 
et seq ; attempt to remove him 
from Chairmanship of Foreign 
Affairs Committee, 280, 290 ; pre- 
sents petition for dissolution of 
the Union, 281 et seq. ; services of, 
at organization of twenty -sixth 
Congress, in the dispute over the 
New Jersey members, 291 et seq.; 
hib rettections concerning his un- 
popularity, 297-299 ; physical con- 
dition in old age, 303, 304, 306; 
multiplicity of labors, 305; suc- 
ceeds in effecting abolition of the 
"gag " rule, 306-308; paralysis, 
308 ; death, 308, 309._^^ 

Bagot, Mr., British Minister, refer 

ence to by Mr. Canning, 143, 144. 
Barnard, D. D., presents petition for 

dissolution of the Union, 289. 
" Barnevelt," papers of, 18. 
Barron, Commodore, commander of 

the Chesapeake, 45. 
Bayard, appointed Commissioner to 

treat for peace with Great Britain 

75, 76. 
Berlin decree, issued, 41. 

Calhoun, John C, candidate foT 
Presidency, 107,150; remark con- 
cerning Southern allia,nce with 
England, 122 ; opinion of Craw- 
fo-d, 158. 

(fanning Stratford, interviews wHt 



INDEX. 



313 



Mr. Adams as to slave trade, 136, 
138-140 ; angry discussion of Mr. 
Adams with, 141-149. 

Castlereagh, Lord, position towards 
the United States in 1814, 93, 94 ; 
relations of Mr. Adams with, 99, 
100. 

Chase, Judge, impeachment of, 36. 

Chesapeake, affair of the, 45, 50 ; 
public meeting, 51. 

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal opened, 
195. 

Clay, Henry, appointed Commis- 
sioner to treat for peace with 
England, 77 ; relations with Mr. 
Adams, 84, 152-155 ; feelings 
about the Mississippi and the 
Fisheries, 88-90 ; Commissioner at 
London, 98; losses at cards, 104 ; 
relations with Monroe's adminis- 
tration, 107, 152,155; concerning 
South American states, 110, 15-^, 
154 ; opposes Spanish treaty, 113, 
117, 125 ; candidate for Presi- 
dency, 150 ; controls Presidential 
election in 1825, 170-174 : made 
Secretary of State, 178; votes at 
his confirmation, 189; charged 
with having made a coiTupt bar- 
gain with Mr. Adams, 181-189 ; 
duel with Randolph, 184. 

Columbia River, discussion between 
Mr. Adams and Canning as to set- 
tlement upon, 141-149. 

' Columbus,"' papers of, 18. 

Congi'ess, troubles at organization 
of twenty-si.xth, 291 et seq. 

Crawford, William II., in the Treas- 
ury, 1U6 ; candidate for Presi- 
dency, 106, 107, 150 ; behavior of, 
concerning Spanish treaty, 113; 
hated by Mr. Adams, 155-157; 
Calhoun's opinion of, 158. 

Dana, Francis, Minister to Russia, 
13. 

Jeas, Mr., at London, 21, 22. 

De Neuville, French Minister, ser- 
vices to Mr. Adams concerning 
Spanish treaty, 115. 

Diary, beginning of, 6; remarks 
concerning, 8 et seq.; during 
Pi-esidential campaign, 151, 165, 
169 ; during Presidency, 211-213 ; 
some extracts from, 300 et seq. 

Embargo, supported by Mr. Adams, 

52 et seq. 
Sngliind, relations of United States 

with, in 1806, 1807, 87, 38 ; viola- 



tions of international law by, 39, 
41 ; impressment of American 
seamen by, 43 et seq. ; harm done 
by, to United States, 46 ; appoints 
Commissioners to treat for peace 
with United States, 77 ; sugges- 
tion of Southern alliance with 
122. 

Federalists, controversv of the 
thirteen, with Adams, 216-220. 

Federal party, schism in the, 26, 
27 ; condition of, in Massachu- 
setts, 28; relations of, with J. 
Q. Adams, 28 ; elects him to State 
Senate, 28 ; to United States Sen- 
ate, 30 ; treats Mr. Adams se- 
vei'ely in the Senate, 31 ; behavioi 
towards England in 1806, 40, 47 • 
in affair of the Chesapeake, 52 
expels Mr. Adams, 52 ; further an 
tipathy to him, in matter of em 
bargo, 53 ; criticised, 59-61 ; de- 
cay of, 105. 

Florida ceded to United States, 116 
125. 

" Gag " rule, so called, established, 
251, 252, 261 ; petitions partially 
receivable under, 262 ; rescinded, 
306-308. 

Gallatin, Commissioner to treat for 
peace with Great Britain, 75, 76 ; 
Commissioner at London, 98. 

Gambler, Lord, Commissioner to 
treat for peace, 77. 

Garland, clerk, behavior of at or- 
ganization of twenty sixth Con- 
gress, 291 et srq. 

Ghent, negotiations at. See Treaty. 

Goulburn, Commissioner to treat 
for peace, 77. 

Greece, affairs of, 135. 

Grenville, Lord, negotiations of Mr 
Adams with, 21, 22. 

Hayti, petitions relating to, 260. 

Impressment of American seamea 
by England, 43 et seq. 

.Iay's treaty ratified, 21, 22. 

Jackson, General AndreK, and the 
Spanish treaty, 126 ; candidate for 
Presidency, l50; Adams's treat- 
ment of, 159-164 ; loses the Presi- 
dential election, 170-174 ; his con- 
nection with the charge of a 
corrupt understanding between 
Adams and Clay, 185-189; hij 



614 



INDEX. 



party led by Van Buren, 193 ; 

the question at issue between 
him and Adams, 196-201 ; elected 
President, 213; his message of 
December 4, 1832, 235 ; behavior 
towards France concerning her 
indebtedness, 239; made Doctor 
of Laws by Harvard College, 242 ; 
personal relations with J. Q. Ad- 
ams, 240-243. 

Jackson, Mr., British Minister, ref- 
erence to, by Mr. Canning, 147, 
148. 

Jefferson, Thomas, ill-treats J. Q. 
Adams, 28. 

Johnson, Joshua, father-in-law of 
Mr. Adams, 22. 

King. Rufus, Minister to England, 

178. 

Leopard, the, attacks the Chdsa- 
peake, 45, 50 ; public meeting con- 
cerning the attack, 51. 

Lloyd, James N., chosen to United 
States Senate in place of Mr. Ad- 
ams, 57. 

Louisiana, admission of, 35 ; dis- 
putes as to boundary of, 111, 
113. 

'Marcellus," papers of, 18. 

McLean, double-dealing of, 206, 
207. 

Milan decree issued, 42. 

Mills, Hon. E. IL, sketch of Wash- 
ington by, 102 ; remarks about 
Mr. Adams, 104; about Crawford, 
158. 

Mississippi, navigation of the, 88- 
90, 95. 

Missouri, admission of, into Union, 
120 ; bearing of this upon Spanish 
treaty, 124, 125. 

*lonroe Doctrine, originated by Mr. 
Adams, 130, 132, 137. 

Monroe, President, nominates Mr. 
Adams Secretary of State, 101 ; in 
society at Washington, 103; his 
administration, 102, 106, 108 ; op- 
posed by Clay, 1G7, 110 ; anxious 
for treaty with Spain, 114 ; his 
relationship to the Monroe Doc- 
trine, 130-137. 

Moose Island, in treaty of 1814, 91. 

N'edtralitt Act passed, 109. 

Xew England, position of, concern- 
ing British aggressions in 1806, 
47 



New Jersey, dispute orer seats of 
Representatives from, 291 et seq. 

Non-importation act, passed, 40. 

Northeastern fisheries, in treaty of 
1814, 88-90, 92, 95. 

Onis, Don, Spanish Minister, 111 ; 
character of, 112 ; his part in ne* 
gotiating treaty between Spain 
and United States, 112 et seq. ; ap 
pealed to concerning misunder- 
standings under the treaty, 117 
118. 

Panama, Congress of, 190. 
Parsons, Theophilus, instrur*.8 

Adams in law, 17. 
Pickering, Timothy, candidate for 

United States Senate, 30 ; elected, 

32 ; relationship with Mr. Adams, 

32 ; votes against Mr. Adams aa 

Minister to Russia, 70. 
Porter, General Peter B., a member 

of the Cabinet, 206. 
Portugal, Mr. Adams appointed 

BIinisterto,23 ; proposal to United 

States to establish an " American 

System," 135. 
Prussia, Mr. Adams goes as Minis 

ter to, 24. 
*' Publicola," papers of, 18. 

Randolph, John, hated by Mr 
Adams, 154, 211, 212 ; duel with 
Clay, 184. 

Report on weights and measures, 
127. 

Republican party, Adams's rela 
tions with, in 1806-7, 65, 66. 

Romanzoff, Count, offers mediation 
of Russia between United Statea 
and England, 75. 

Russell, Jonathan, appointed Com 
missioner to treat for peace with 
England, 77. 

Russia, Mr. Adams appointed Min- 
ister to, 70 ; life in, 71 75. 

Sectionalism as a basis of political 
parties, 189-193. 

Slavery, petitions for abolition of, 
presented by Mr. Adams, 249-252, 
254 ; efforts to stop reception of 
these petitions, 249-252 ; may ba 
abolished by virtue of war pow- 
ers of United States Government, 
262-266 ; petitions for abolishing, 
referred to Committee on District 
of Columbia, 307 ; and se« chap 
ter iii., passim. 



INDEX. 



315 



6 



Blaves, presentation of petition of, 
270 et seq. 

Blave-trade, propositions for its sup- 
pression, 136, 138-140. 

Bouth, a party of the, first organ- 
ized, 189-193. 

Bouth America, States of, anxious 
for recognition by United States, 
109 ; proposed interference in af- 
fairs of, by Holy Alliance, 133 ; 
Mr. Clay's course concerning, 110, 
153, 154. 

t'pain, dilQcultles with, 110, 111 ; 
treaty with, concluded, 116 ; re- 
fuses ratification, 118 

Texas, petitions concerning, 257 ; 
annexation of, opposed by Mr. 
Adams, 266. 267. 

Treaty of peace with England in 
1814, negotiations concerning, 
77-93 ; terms of, 94, 96 ; opinions 
concerning in England, 96. 97, 
98; in the United States, 97; of 
1783, 80; concluded with Spain, 



116 ; but misunderstandings arir« 
concerning, 117; not rat&ed by 
Spain, 118 ; finally ratified, 125. 

United States, relations of, wfib 
England in 1806, 378. 

Van Buren, leads opposition to lir 
Adams's administration, 193. 

Vives, Spanish Minister, arriTK, 
124 ; concludes treaty, 125. 

Von Hoist, opinion of Mr. Adrms. 
214 

V^AR power of United States Gov- 
ernment to abolish slavery, 262- 
266. 

Washington, in 1803, 80; in 1817, 
102-104. 

Washington, George, treatment of 
Mr. Adams, 23. 

Weights and measures, report on, 
127 

Wise, Henry A., treatment of Mr. 
AdamB,296 



9lmertcan Statesmen. 



A Series of Biographies of Men famous in the 

Political History of the United States. Edited by 

John T. Morse, Jr. Each volume, i6mo, 

gilt top, $1.25; half morocco, $2.50. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, By John T. Morse, Jr. 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge, 

JOHN C. CALHOUN, By Dr. H. Von Hoist. 

ANDREW JACKSON. By W. G. Sumner. 

JOHN RANDOLPH. By Henry Adams. 

JAMES MONROE. By D. C. Gilman. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. By John T. Morse, Jr. 

DANIEL WEBSTER. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 

ALBERT GALEA TIN By John Austin Stevens. 

JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay. 

JOHN ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr. 

JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder. 

SAMUEL ADAMS. By James K. Hosmer. 

THOMAS H. BENTON. By Theodore Roosevelt. 

HENRY CLA Y. By Carl Schurz. 2 vols. 

PATRICK HENRY. By Moses Coit Tyler. 

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By Theodore Roosevelt. 

MARTIN VAN BUREN By Edward M. Shepard. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON By Henry Cabot Lodge. 
2 vols. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John T. Morse, Jr. 

JOHN J A Y. By George Pellew. 

LEWIS CASS. By Andrew C. McLaughlin. 

Others to be announced hereafter. 



CRITICAL NOTICES, 



yOHN QUINCY ADAMS, ^hat Mr. Morse's con- 
-^ ^ elusions will in the mam 

be those of posterity we have very little doubt, and he has set an 
admirable example to his coadjutors in respect of interesting 
narrative, just proportion, and judicial candor. — New York 
Eveniitg Post. 

HAMILTON '^^^^ biography of Mr. Lodge is calm and 

dignified throughout. He has the virtue 
— rare indeed among biographers — of impartiality. He has 
done his work with conscientious care, and the biography of 
Hamilton is a book which cannot have too many readers. It is 
more than a biography ; it is a study in the science of govern- 
ment. — St. Paul Pioneer-Press. 

CATHOUN Nothing can exceed the skill with which the 

political career of the great South Carolinian 
is portrayed in these pages. The work is superior to any other 
number of the series thus far, and we do not think it can be sur- 
passed by any of those that are to come. The whole discussion 
in relation to Calhoun's position is eminently philosophical and 
just. — The Dial (Chicago). 

'^ACK^ONf ■ Professor Sumner has ... all in all, made 
•^ ' the justest long estimate of Jackson that has 

had itself put between the covers of a book. — New York 
Times. 

7? J pjTin T pfT The book has been to me intensely inter- 
esting. . . It is rich in new facts and side 
lights, and is worthy of its place in the already brilliant series 
of monographs on American Statesmen. — Prof. Moses Coit 
Tyler. 

MONROE ^"^ clearness of style, and in all points of liter- 
ary workmanship, from cover to cover, the 
volume is well-nigh perfect. There are also a calmness of judg- 
ment, a correctness of taste, and an absence of partisanship 
which are too frequently wanting in biographies, and especially 
in political biographies. — Ajtierican Literary Churehman (Bal- 
timore). 

TEEEERSON '^^^ book is exceedingly interesting and 
"^ ' readable. The attention of the reader is 

strongly seized at once, and he is carried along in spite of him- 
self, sometimes protesting, sometimes doubting, yet unable to 
lay the book down. — Chicago Standard. 

lYEB STER ^^ ^'^ ^^ ^^^*"^ ^y students of history ; it will 

be invaluable as a work of reference ; it 
will be an authority as regards matters of fact and criticism; it 
hits the keynote of Webster's durable and ever-growing fame; 
it is adequate, calm, impartial ; it is admirable. — Philadelphia 
Press. 



C ALLATIN It is one of the most carefully prepared of 

these very valuable volumes, . . . abound- 
ing in information not so readily accessible as is that pertaining 
to men more often treated by the biographer, . . . The whole 
work covers a ground which the political student cannot afford 
to neglect. — Bostoji Correspondetit Hartford Cotirant. 

i[/f A Ji T '^ Q AT The execution of the work deserves the high- 
est praise. It is very readable, in a bright 
and vigorous style, and is marked by unity and consecutiveness 
of plan. — The Natio?t (New York). 

'YOmV ADAMS ^ good piece of literary work. ... It 
•^ * covers the ground thoroughly, and 

gives just the sort of simple and succinct account that is wanted. 
— Evening Post (New York). 

Afj I? ^ffATT Well done, with simplicity, clearness, pre- 
cision, and judgment, and in a spirit of 
moderation and equity. A valuable addition to the series. — 
New York Tribune. 

SAMUEL ADAMS. Thoroughly appreciative and sym- 

pathetic, yet fair and critical. . . . 
This biography is a piece of good work — a clear and simple 
presentation of a noble man and pure patriot ; it is written in a 
spirit of candor and humanity. — Worcester Spy. 

J^RAfTON "^^ interesting addition to our political liter- 
ature, and will be of great service if it spread 
an admiration for that austere public morality which was one of 
the marked characteristics of its chief figure. — The Epoch 
(New York). 

CTA Y. We have in this life of Henry Clay a biography of 
one of the most distinguished of American states- 
men, and a political history of the United States for the first 
half of the nineteenth century. In each of these important and 
difficult undertakings, Mr. Schurzhas been eminently successful. 
Indeed, it is not too much to say that, for the period covered, 
we have no other book which equals or begins to equal this life 
of Henry Clay as an introduction to the study of American pol- 
itics. — Political Science Quarterly (New York). 

ffp'pjj? Y Professor Tyler has not only made one of the 
best and most readable of American biographies ; 
he may fairly be said to have reconstructed the life of Patrick 
Henry, and to have vindicated the memory of that great man 
from the unappreciative and injurious estimate which has been 
placed upon it. — JVew York Evening Post. 

MORRIS ^^* Roosevelt has produced an animated and 
intensely interesting biographical volume. . . . 
ivir. Roosevelt never loses sight of the picturesque background 
of politics, war -governments, and diplomacy. — Magazine of 
American History (New York). 



yjAT 'BUREN ^° more generous, appreciative, or just 

biography, and no more interesting or 
philosophical piece of political history has appeared in this valu- 
able series . . . than this absorbing book. . . . To give any ad- 
equate idea of the personal interest of the book, or its intimate 
bearing on nearly the whole course of our political history would 
be equivalent to quoting the larger part of it. — Brooklyn Eagle. 

WASHINGTOJV ^^* Lodge has written an admirable 

biography, and one which cannot but 
confirm the American people in the prevailing estimate concern- 
ing the Father of his Country ; but its deepest and most impor- 
tant significance appears to us to consist in its testimony to the 
exaltation and the uniqueness of a character whose like comes 
seldom to the world, and only in periods of great stress and cri- 
sis. — New York Tribune. 

FRANKLIN ^^ ^^^ managed to condense the whole 

mass of matter gleaned from all sources 
into his volume without losing in a single sentence the freedom 
or lightness of his style or giving his book in any part the 
crowded look of an epitome. He has plenty of time and plenty 
of room for all he wishes to say, and says it in the very best and 
most interesting manner. — The Independent (New York). 



*jit* For sale by all Booksellers. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of 
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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
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